
Class LC g.';5l 
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I'UKSKNIEU B^i' 



Ube Xttnivetslti? ot (Ebicaeo 

THE PLAY MOVEMENT IN THE 
UNITED STATES 

A STUDY OF 
COMMUNITY RECREATION 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY 



BY 

CLARENCE ELMER RAINWATER 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 
1921 



Ubc mnivcxsit^ of abicago 

THE PLAY MOVEMENT IN THE 
UNITED STATES 

A STUDY OF 
COMMUNITY RECREATION 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OP ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 






DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY 



BY 

CLARENCE ELMER RAINWATER 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 

1921 






Copyright 1922 by 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published January 1922 



PREFACE 

Every period of social advance has been 
accompanied by the spirit of play. The contem- 
porary generation in our own country is no 
exception to that rule. Industrial developments, 
immigration, the growth of the democratic spirit 
in education and in economics as well as in gov- 
ernment have not characterized the present age 
more than have amateur sports, commercialized 
amusements, and socialized art. Eighty thousand 
people have witnessed a single football contest, 
ninety thousand a prize fight, while baseball has 
become "the American game" and athletics a 
recognized feature of both high school and col- 
lege life. Few cities are now without municipal 
bands, orchestras, or auditoriums, as well as 
swimming pools and public golf links. The mu- 
nicipal pier of Chicago extends into the lake three- 
quarters of a mile and terminates in a magnifi- 
cent auditorium seating five thousand and dedi- 
cated to amateur dramatic and musical expres- 
sion. Transcontinental automobile routes out- 
number the railroads, the motion picture industry 
is fifth in the United States, while it is estimated 
that the population of our second largest city 
alone expends two hundred fifty million dollars 
annually in leisure-time pursuits. Festivals, 
pageants, tournaments, fairs, and expositions 



vi PREFACE 

have also engaged their thousands of partici- 
pants as well as hundreds of thousands of spec- 
tators. The pageant and masque of St. Louis^ 
given in 1914, involved seven thousand actors 
and one hundred twenty-five thousand specta- 
tors at each performance. These events suggest 
many more, among which, and involving in some 
instances either their creation or incorporation, 
may be mentioned ''the play movement," also 
known as the playground and recreation move- 
ment. 

This volume is an analysis of the play move- 
ment in the United States. It is the first attempt 
to produce a complete and authentic report of 
the structure and concept of function of that 
movement. It comprises more than a description 
of sand gardens or playgrounds for children, 
since the term "play" is used to embrace most 
of the activities occurring in social and commun- 
ity centers, in community music, drama, and 
pageantry, and in community service and organ- 
ization. This study, moreover, is not merely a 
composite of the statements of previous writers 
on the play movement, but an attempt to recon- 
struct a view of the events in question based 
upon primary rather than secondary sources, 
such as pictures, programs, published reports, 
and personal experiences and observations of the 
present writer. The sections containing the 
greatest contribution to a knowledge of the sub- 
ject, as well as being of the most significance to 



PREFACE vii 

both the practical administrator and the general 
reader, are doubtless those on the "stages" and 
the ** transitions." Those chapters define the 
present structure and concept of function by the 
aid of a comparison of contemporary methods 
with those pursued in previous periods of its 
development. It will be seen, upon examination 
of those portions of the text, that an elaborate 
technique containing many interesting mechan- 
isms has evolved. This technique is the structure 
and the concept of the function of the play move- 
ment in the United States today. It may be fully 
understood only by a knowledge of how it came 
to be. 

Among those who have helped materially to 
gain access to the sources of information, espe- 
cially concerning the origin and earlier stages of 
the movement, are Miss Ellen M. Tower, of Lex- 
ington, Mass., who loaned me pictures and other 
valuable material, and the Library of the City of 
Boston which loaned rare copies of annual re- 
ports of societies conducting playgrounds. 

For a decade the present writer was actively 
engaged in the work of administering play, being 
director of Hamilton Park Eecreation Center, 
South Park System, Chicago, from 1910 to 1917, 
and in teaching normal classes in play and recrea- 
tional administration since 1913, in the University 
of Chicago, the American College of Physical 
Education, the University of Southern California, 
and others. In these associations he has been 



viii PREFACE 

permitted to make many observations and test 
many suggestions in the laboratory of practical 
experience on the field and in the class room. It 
is hoped that this volume may serve as a text- 
book in normal classes, a book of reference to 
the general reader, and a guide to the prac- 
tical director of play. It has been ten years in the 
making, and is the first of a series now in prepara- 
tion which includes further studies in the 
''theory," the "history," the ''direction," and 
the "administration" of play and recreation. 

While I am indebted to many for the ideas 
incorporated in this study, and wish to convey 
in this manner my gratitude to all with whom I 
have been associated in the past, for the as- 
sistance that contact with them afforded me, I 
wish especially to thank Professors E. W. Bur- 
gess and R. E. Park of the University of Chi- 
cago, for their constructive criticisms of the 
manuscript which has been accepted in partial ful- 
filment of the requirements for the degree of 
doctor of philosophy in the Department of So- 
ciology of that institution; and to express my 
indebtedness to my wife who was associated with 
me throughout my practical and teaching experi- 
ences and who gave invaluable aid in gathering 
the materials, reading the proofs, making the 
index, and without whose encouragement this 
book would doubtless remain as yet unfinished. 

Clakence E. Rainwater 
Chicago, Illinois, 
September 1, 1921 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAC8 

I. Introduction 

A. The concept of a "movement" . . 1 

B. The use of the term "play" ... 4 

C. The use of the term * ' play movement ' ' 8 

D. The problem of this investigation . 11 

II. The Origin of the Play Movement . . 13 

A. Incidents mentioned as the origin of 

the movement 13 

B. Influence of the "sand gardens" 
within Boston 27 

C. Influence of Boston upon other cities 36 

D. The conclusions 43 

III. The Stages op the Play Movement . . 4^ 

A. The "sand garden" stage .... 46 

B. The "model playground" stage . . 55 . 

C. The "small park" stage .... 70 

D. The "recreation" center stage . . 91 

E. The "civic art and welfare" stage . 118 

F. The " neighborhood organization " stage f35 
Gr. The "community service" stage . . 178 

IV. The Transitions in the Play Movement . 191 

A. Provision for all ages 192 

B. All-year provision for play . . . 200 

C. Equipment for both indoor and out- 
door facilities 209 

D. Congested urban districts and rural 
communities 218 

E. Philanthropic and community support 
and control 226 

F. Free and directed play with correlated 
schedules 239 

ix 



X THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

CHAPTER PACS 

G. Simple and complex field of activities 263 
H. Provision of facilities and definition 

of standards 273 

I. Individual interests and group and 

community activities 288 

V. The Trend op the Play Movement . . 308 

A. Group sanction of proposed adjust- 
ments 313 

B. The production of physical embodi- 
ments 315 

C. Increasing historical continuity . . . 317 

D. The development of organization . 318 

E. Relative permanency of structure and 
concept of function 320 

VI. Conclusion . . , 327 

Appendices 

A. Sources of information for chapter ii 332 

B. Athletic organization for recreation 
system 334 

C. Weekly schedule indoor men's gym- 
nasium 339' 

D. "Weekly schedule indoor women's gym- 
nasium 340 

E. Weekly schedule of clubhouse . . . 341 

F. Weekly schedule of fieldhouse . . . 342 

G. Yearly calendar of recreation center . 344 
• H. Yearly calendar of recreation system . 347 

I. Merit system of scoring in basket-ball . 352 

J. Merit system of scoring in baseball . 354 

Bibliography 356 

Index 367 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 



FACING 
TAGS 



Early Sand Garden in Boston 22 

Early Schoolyard Playground, Boston .... 22 

Highly Organized Sand Garden, "Model Play- 
ground" Stage, Boston ....... 56 

Tennis Players, Washington Park, Chicago . ' . 72 

New Trier Township High School, Kenilworth, 

Illinois 116 

Midwinter Gymnastic Exhibition, Hamilton Park 

Neighborhood Center, Chicago 150 

Children's Singing Games, Hamilton Park Indoor 

Gymnasium, Chicago 192 

Wooden Shoe Dance, Women's Gymnasium, Ham- 
ilton Park 192 

Girls' Indoor Gymnasium Class, Hamilton Park 

Fieldhouse 218 

Branch Public Library, Hamilton Park Field- 
house 218 

A Self-governing and Self-supporting Social 

Dance, Hamilton Park 238 

A Community Supported and Governed Junior 
Dramatic Cast, ' ' House of the Heart, ' ' Hamil- 
ton Park 238 

"World Building," Hamilton Park, Chicago, A 
Rural Scene, A Suburban View, A City by 
the Sea 266 

"Cinderella." Story-playing, using the dramatic, 
pantomime, dancing, choral and pageantry 
arts, 135 children in cast, Hamilton Park . 296 
xi 



I. INTEODUCTION 

A. The concept of a movement. A discussion 
of the subject of this investigation is incomplete 
if the use of the concept ''movement" is not 
made clear. An explanation, then, of the sense in 
which it is here employed is in place at the outset 
of this report. The word itself is a popular 
equivalent to certain types of social change that 
are unilateral and progressive and eventuate in 
institutions when not disapproved by the group. 
A ''movement" is a mode of collective behavior 
occasioned by social disorganization or contacts, 
involving intercommunication of desires, and 
manifested by an organization of social activities 
intended to accomplish a common object. These 
activities consist of adjustments to the given 
social situation.^ 

There are four characteristics common to 
movements: (1) a series of events involving ad- 
justments to a social situation; (2) an exten- 
sion of this series in time and space; (3) an object 
to be realized by means of the adjustments in- 
volved; and (4) a tendency toward the attainment 
of that object, disclosed by stages in its develop- 
ment and transitions in its policy and activities. 
A series of events in the sense peculiar to a 
movement, however, comprises more than a num- 

^Cf. Robert E, Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction 
to the Science of Sociology, University of Chicago Press, 1921, 
pp. 54-55. 

1 



2 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

ber of incidents of similar or identical content 
and motive, occurring at different times and in 
various places, having a common object and in- 
volving adjustments to a social situation. A 
cause and effect relation between the incidents of 
the series is an essential element of a movement. 
Later events are incited by motives received from 
earlier ones as in a mathematical series in which 
each of the terms is derived from one or more of 
the preceding ones or an electrical series by which 
the parts of a circuit are connected successively 
from end to end to form a single path for the 
current. Incidents that are unaffected by this 
relation are not components of a movement. 
They are sporadic and usually antedate it. A 
consideration of this fact is paramount in deter- 
mining the inception of a given movement.^ 

The events of a series, however, are not 
always identical in structure. The concept of 
the function of a movement does not remain 
changeless throughout its history. Modifications 
occur with extension in time and space. Differ- 
ences in structure result from changes in the 
concept of its function, and these, in turn, are 
occasioned by new adjustments to the social sit- 
uation. These adjustments indicate the evolution 
of a movement and are disclosed by stages, transi- 
tions, and tendencies in its history. 

2This Is true of the inception of the play movement in the 
United States, as will be shown in Part I of this report. No 
less than seven dates have been assigned, ranging from 1634 
to 1898. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

A movement, furthermore, is transitory, be- 
coming in time transformed into an institution 
when its program of adjustment to a social situa- 
tion is established, or disintegrating with the 
passing of the social situation or the illusion con- 
cerning the same that incited it. Movements, then, 
differ comparatively in both the efficacy and the 
ethics of their programs. Some are negative, 
seeking the destruction of an institution; others 
are positive, making new adjustments by the or- 
ganization of social activities. iMovements are 
incidental to social interaction. They are essen- 
tial in certain phases of social evolution, as when 
they incite a group consciousness of maladjust- 
ments within the existing social situation and 
arouse popular interest in some scheme of read- 
justment, while at other times, as in certain forms 
of fashion imitation, they may result in merely a 
transitory diversion of public attention. 

A movement, then, as the concept is employed 
in this report, is a series of events involving ad- 
justments to a social situation; connected by a 
cause and effect relation ; possessing an extension 
in time and space; and disclosing stages, transi- 
tions, tendencies, that are correlative with a 
changing concept of its function and indicative of 
its evolution. 

Many movements have arisen in the United 
States during the last forty years. They have 
attempted to make adjustments to a social situa- 
tion which in most instances developed from con- 



4 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

ditions produced by urbanization, immigration, 
and specialization in industry, and of whose exist- 
ence, philanthropists and others did not become 
aware until during or since the last quarter of the 
nineteenth century. The first of the recent move- 
ments, and one that came with the awakening of 
a new social spirit following the Civil War, was 
a sanitary one.^ It sought to enforce cleanliness, 
and secure better light and purer air in the homes 
of immigrants who formed a large percentage of 
the wage earners in urban communities. As ur- 
banization and immigration continued, attempts 
to make adjustments to other social situations 
gave rise to additional movements. One of these 
was the ''play movement." An explanation of 
the sense in which the terms "play" and "play 
movement" are used in this investigation will now 
be made.* 

B. The use of the term ''play." In the lan- 
guage of Dewey, "play" describes "those activi- 
ties which are not consciously performed for the 
sake of any reward beyond themselves."^ Ac- 
cording to Patrick, it involves "not merely chil- 
dren's play and grown-ups' sports .... but 

Ht is significant in this connection that a hygiene society, 
the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association of 
Boston, was involved in the inception of the play movement. 

*For an analysis of the scientific attempts to define the 
nature and function of play, consult The Meaning of Play by 
C. E. Rainwater, University of Chicago Press, 1915. 

sjohn Dewey, "play," in Cyclopedia of Education, Paul 
Monroe, 1914. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

many forms of so-called work. ' '° While according 
to Blackmar and Gillin, ''only in groups does it 
get its compelling and socially useful intensity,'" 
thus confirming another point made by Dewey, 
that "the stimuli become more social as intelli- 
gence develops." 

''Play" is generic to maturity as well as to 
immaturity, to some forms of "work" as well as 
to ' ' leisure pursuits. ' ' Its origin lies in the active 
processes in which life manifests itself. Its varie- 
ties of organization arise from the interaction 
of agent and stimuli as the responsive activity 
returns upon the stimulus, maintaining it, varying 
it, awakening a sense of satisfaction in the con- 
sciousness of the subject performing it, and sup- 
plying the stimuli for keeping up more action 
which becomes more social as intelligence devel- 
ops, evolving in many instances "an attitude of 
mind"® by which much that is called "work," such 
as scientific inquiry for its own sake, is insensibly 
transformed into "play." 

In any case the starting point is the active processes in 
vrhich life manifests itself. The moving spool draws the 
organic response of the kitten to itself; this response con- 
tinues to gives the spool the kind of movements which con- 
tinue to excite organic reactions The stimuli be- 
come more social, as intelligence develops. The interests and 
occupations of adults are the points of departure and the 
directing clues of children's actions 

^G. T. W. Patrick, "The Psychology of Relaxation," Atlantic 
Monthly, June, 1914. 

^F. W. Blackmar and J. L. Gillin, Outlines of Sociology, 
p. 296. 

^Dewey, supra. 



6 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

It is also desirable to distinguisli an attitude of mind 
. . . . distinguishable from inability to enjoy intellectual 
activity upon a subject except in the interest of some pre- 
conceived theory or some practical utility Unless 

play takes this intellectual form, the full spirit of scientific 
inquiry is never realized; much, if not all, of what is termed 
the love of truth for truth's sake in scientific inquiry repre- 
sents the attitude of play carried over into enjoyment of the 
activities of inquiry for its own sake.^ 

''Play," furthermore, is not a given type of 
activity, such as, "sports," "games," "recrea- 
tions," or "relaxations"; nor is it the "motor 
habits and spirits of the past of the race, persist- 
ing in the present" (Hall),^° although it fre- 
quently does exercise "those nerve centers that 
are old in the race" (Patrick)/^ It does not con- 
sume merely the "surplus energy" of the "indi- 
vidual" by "superfluous and useless exercises of 
faculties that have been quiescent" for a time 
(Spencer),^- but on the contrary, since "a person 
is a center of conscious impulses which realize 
themselves in full only in realizing a society" 
(Small)," it frequently happens that "all the 
energy is expended in play" (Patrick) in -response 
to group stimulation. "Play is the most im- 
portant method," most likely "of realization of 
the social instincts" (Baldwin)/* It does not 
simply "prepare for the necessary duties of ma- 

^Dewey, supra. 

"G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, Vol. II, 206-36. 
"G. T. W. Patrick, supra. 

i^Herbert Spencer, Principles of Psychology, p. 628. 
13A. W. Small, General Sociology, p. 476. 
i^J. M. Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 
148-56. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

ture life" (Groos)/^ for it is common to maturity 
as well as immaturity, involving ''those activities 
which are not consciously performed for the sake 
of any reward beyond themselves " (Dewey) ^*' dur- 
ing any age period of personal experience and in 
any portion of a given day, in working hours as 
well as in leisure time, since play is "an attitude 
of mind" (Dewey)" that anyone may attain in 
any situation "in which interest is self-develop- 
ing" (Patrick)/® It is pleasurable, relatively 
spontaneous, a motive force which finds expres- 
sion in art and in certain types of work, as in the 
"instinct of workmanship," but when balked may 
take the form of anti-social behavior/^ 

J- The variety of playful activities that may take 
place in a given community is virtually unlimited 
because "play" is generic to all periods of per- 
sonal experience, is determined by the response of 
inherited and acquired capacities of persons to 
the social situation, and is intrinsically related to 
what ethnologists describe as the culture of the 
group. Dewey implied it with respect to child- 
hood by noting that "the interests and occupa- 
tions of adults are the points of departure and the 
directing clues of children's actions,"^" while 

i^K. Groos, The Play of Man. 
16J. Dewey, supra. 

18G. T. W. Patrick, supra. 

i^Luther H. Gulick, "Play and Democracy," Charities and 
the Commons, Aug. 3, 1907. 
^ojohn Dewey, supra. 



8 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Patrick stated it concretely with respect to adults 
as well as children as follows :^^ 

Play will thus include practically all the activities of 
children and the larger share of those of adults, such for in- 
stance, as baseball, football, tennis, golf, polo, billiards, and 
countless other games and sports ; diversions such as traveling, 
hunting, fishing, yachting, motoring, flying, dancing, vacation 
outings, games, races, spectacles, fairs, tournaments, and ex- 
positions; the theatre, opera, moving pictures, lectures, and 
entertainments ; the enjoyment of music, painting, poetry, and 
other arts; the daily paper, the magazine, the short story, 
and the novel. 

''Play,'.' then, as the concept is used in this 
report, is a mode of human behavior, either indi- 
vidual or collective, involving pleasurable activity 
of any kind not undertaken for the sake of a re- 
ward beyond itself and performed during any 
age period of the individual, the particular action 
being determined at a given time by the somatic 
structure and social attitudes of the agent in con- 
junction with the life of the group or groups of 
which he is a member. Thus the child does not 
behave as the adult at play ; nor the savage as the 
civilized. 

C. The use of the term "play movement.' ' 
Until the latter half of the nineteenth century, as 
pointed out by Newell,^" the children of the United 
States possessed a richer play tradition than those 
of any other civilized nation. This fact was due 
first, to our inheritance of play from Elizabethan 

2iGr. T. W. Patrick, The Psychology of Relaxation, Hough- 
ton Mifflin & Co., 1916, p. 47. 

^-William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American 
Children, Harper and Brothers, N. Y., 1911, pp. 3 ff. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

England, and second, to two centuries of compara- 
tive isolation from events that might have im- 
paired its traditional forms of expression. And 
play traditions were as strong, says Lee,^^ in Puri- 
tan New England as in the South or the Middle 
States. But the laissez faire attitude of the public 
toward child play, the restrictions placed upon 
space in which to play as urbanization increased, 
and the differences between the languages and the 
games of the children of many nationalities 
mingled in the cities, resulted in a rapid disorgani- 
zation of child play in urban communities, while 
isolation in rural districts wrought a similar effect 
upon the play of the children of that element of 
the population.^* 

The same forces that caused disintegration of 
the play traditions of children were largely instru- 
mental in disorganizing many recreational activi- 
ties of adults. The creation of American folk 
music, folk dances,^^ and folk games ceased with 
the decline of village social life. The gathering 
of May baskets, the singing of Christmas carols, 
the husking-bees, spelling-matches, and singing- 
schools, alike were discontinued with the growth 

23Joseph Lee, "American Play Traditions and Our Rela- 
tions to Them," The Playground, 1913, pp. 148-59. 

^*IMd, p. 148. "We are at present in imminent danger of 
losing a large part of the precious tradition. The danger, like 
so many others that threaten our social life, arises largely 
from the crowding of our cities and the increasing loneliness 

of our country districts Immigration is the other 

cause." 

25E. B. Mero, American Playgrounds, Baker & Taylor Co., 
pp. 108, 119. 



10 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

of population in urban communities and of isola- 
tion in rural districts. "'' In the cities, where a con- 
sciousness of the social situation first arose, the 
behavior of children, youths, and adults during 
their leisure hours and holidays frequently be- 
came delinquent conduct, play became crime,^^ 
while leisure pursuits became commercialized to 
an extent without precedent.^® Whereas formerly 
both children and adults had participated in play 
and recreation, now they became spectators. The 
motion picture accelerated this tendency; but it 
had begun long before the invention of the cinema- 
tograph. With the shifting of population from 
small communities, in which play and recreational 
traditions tliat were centuries old still survived, 
had begun long before the invention of the cine- 
matograph. With the shifting of population from 
the community, alike lost their former significance 
in the recreational life of the people. The social 
situation was fundamentally changed. Adjust- 
ments were necessary. The people did not partic- 
ipate in recreation because they could not under 
existing conditions since they lacked both the 
physical facilities and the social organization for 
doing so. The ''first pathetic expression," said 

Robinson, -^ of a consciousness of this fact, and the 
y 26E. J. Ward, The Social Center, D. Appleton & Co., N. Y., 
1913, p. 306. 

27Jolin Collier and Edw. M. Barrows, The City Where 
Crime Is Play, Peoples Institute, New York, 1916. 

28M. M. Davis, The Exploitation of Pleasure, Russell Sage 
Foundation, 1910. 

29Charles Mulford Robinson, "Improvement of City Life," 
Atlantic Monthly, April 1899, p. 534. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

first effort to make an adjustment to the changed 
social situation, came with the sand gardens for 
little children. Subsequent adjustments made 
provision for youths and adults, respectively, 
while the initial forms of each have been altered 
by more recent changes, especially in the last 
decade, in both the structure and the concept of 
the function of the "play movement. "f These 
various attempts to bring about an adjustment of 
both the play life of children and the recreational 
activities of youths and adults to the social situa- 
tion in both urban and rural communities, in so 
far as they form a series of related events, consti- 
tute the '■ '■ play movement ' ' in the United States as 
the term is employed in this report."*"| 

The ''play movement" is a positive taovement 
rather than a negative one. It seeks to bring about 
adjustments through the organization of social 
activities. Among these have appeared the sand 
gardens and the model playgrounds; the recre- 
ation center, the social center, and the community 
center; community music, community drama, and 
pageantry, municipal theatres, piers, bands and 
orchestras; community service and community 
organization. 

D. The problem of this investigation. A pre- 
liminary survey of the evolution of the play move- 
ment in the United States raised five questions 
which will be answered in as many sections : (1) 
What was the origin of the movement? (2) What 
have been its stages? (3) What transitions have 



12 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

occurred in its policy and activities? (4) What is 
its trend? And (5) should not all the facts rela- 
tive to the evolution of the play movement be 
brought together in a unified whole with reference 
to the changed social situation? The facts de- 
rived from a study of (a) the origin, (b) the 
stages, (c) the transitions, and (d) the trend, will 
be summarized and presented in defense of the 
proposition that there has been an evolution in 
the structure and the concept of the function of 
the play movement in the United States in adjust- 
ment to the modern social situation. 



II. THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT^ 

In accordance with tlie concept of a movement 
formulated in the preceding section, there are but 
two tests to be applied to an event to determine 
whether or not it marks the origin of a move- 
ment : First, was it a conscious provision for the 
object of the movement in question! second. Was it 
the first of a series of events bearing a cause-and- 
effect relation toward one another and performed 
with that purpose in mind which characterized 
the movement? Notwithstanding the simplicity 
of this method, there is a difference of opinion 
concerning the event which marked the beginning 
of the play movement in the United States. No 
less than seven incidents are mentioned by various 
authors as designating that fact. Since the estab- 
lishment of the date, place, and action marking its 
origination is essential to a study of its stages, 
the facts relative to the origin of the play move- 
ment will now be analyzed. 

A. Incidents mentioned as the origin of the 
movement. The earliest action that has been sug- 
gested as the beginning of the play movement in 
the United States is the provision of the New Eng- 
land town commons which dates from the early 
part of the seventeenth century,^ the Boston com- 

iSee Appendix A for list of sources consulted in the study 
of the origin of the play movement. 

iSee Appendix A for list of sources consulted in the study 
The Macmillan Co., 1902, p. 123. 

13 



14 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

mon having been established in 1634. There is 
abundant evidence that these commons have been 
used for play by each succeeding generation of 
boys since colonial times; and seventeen of these 
spaces are now incorporated in the metropolitan 
park district of Boston alone. They fail, however, 
to meet both tests mentioned above, since their 
original provision was for pasturage, while their 
recent utilization in municipal recreation came 
later than other events that meet with the first 
requirement. 

During 1821-30 outdoor gymnasiums were con- 
structed for the first time in the United States^ 
and in connection with the schools and colleges of 
New England and New York City. The Salem 
Latin School opened an outdoor gymnasium in 
1821, equipped with crude apparatus but without 
supervision. The Round Hill School at North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, opened another in 1825, 
equipped with German gymnasium apparatus and 
supervised by a former pupil of Jahn. A third 
was conducted for a year in Washington Garden, 
Boston, also under the supervision of a pupil of 
Jahn, attendance falling from four hundred the 
first season to four the second because **the nov- 
elty had ceased, and some of the gymnasts had 
been caricatured in the print shops." Similar 
gymnasiums were established at Harvard, and 
Yale in 1826, at Williams, Brown, and Amherst 

3Cf. F. E. Leonard, Pioneers of Modern Physical Training; 
E. B. Mero, American Playgrounds, Baker & Taylor Co., 1908, 
pp. 244-45; Phillips, A Short History of Amherst College. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 15 

in 1827, and at the New York High School the 
following year. By 1830, however, interest had 
subsided, owing chiefly to the return to Germany 
of those political exiles whose presence in America 
had led to a temporary enthusiasm for play and 
organized physical exercise. Subsequent dev^- 
opments in college athletics did not appear until 
thirty years later and were due to impulses from 
another source : namely, the sanitary movement 
following the Civil War. Thus these early college 
and school gymnasiums were not the first of a 
series of events now understood as the play move- 
ment in the United States. 

In 1868 an outdoor children's playground was 
established under the auspices of the old First 
Church of Boston* in the yard of a public school 
near Copley Square and in connection with a va- 
cation school maintained at that place. While 
this event was a definite provision for play, it 
received little, if any, attention at the time and 
was conducted for only one reason. There is no 
evidence that it was related to subsequent devel- 
opments in that city or elsewhere. It was, at 
most, but a sporadic expression of the conscious- 
ness of a need that did not gain lasting recogni- 
tion until fully twenty years later. 

The fourth incident that has been mentioned 
as the beginning of the play movement was the 
purchase of two tracts of land to be used for play 

"Cf. The Playground, "A Brief History of the Playground 
Movement in America," April, 1915, pp. 1 ff.; Charities and the 
Commons, "Vacation Schools," Sept. 6, 1902. 



16 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

activities by vote of a town meeting of Brook- 
line,^ Massachusetts, on April 10, 1872. Concern- 
ing this act the following statement is made in 
the Town Records of Brookline, published in 1887 : 

Twenty-first Article taken up : 

To see if the town will approve and confirm the deeds 
taken of the lands bought for commons or playgrounds, and 
the action of the Selectmen thereon. 

The following preamble and vote were passed; viz.: 

WHEREAS, at a legal meeting of the inhabitants of 
Brookline, holden May 2, 1871, for the purpose of acting, 
among other matters, upon the report of the committee ap- 
pointed at the last annual meeting, upon the subject of pro- 
curing land for public commons or playgrounds, the town, 
pursuant to said report, voted to buy for said purpose two 
lots of lands described in said vote; and whereas the Select- 
men, upon the seventeenth day of May, in the year 1871, in 
behalf of the town, and in pursuance of its votes, accepted a 
deed to the town from Col. Thomas Aspinwall of the lot of 
land on Brookline Avenue, bought as aforesaid, and upon the 
twenty-second day of May accepted a deed to the town from 
William B. Craft, James Murray Howe, and Samuel Clark 
of the lots of land on Cyprus and other streets, bought as 
aforesaid, and have paid in behalf of the town to said grant- 
ors the consideration named in said deeds according to said 
votes: now it is hereby 

VOTED, to confirm, ratify and approve the said deeds, 
and to approve, ratify and confirm the doings of the Select- 
men in the premises as set forth in their report to the town. 

While this act by the town of Brookline was 
a conscious provision for play, as were the events 
of 1868 and 1821-30 discussed above, there were 
no immediate acts, either in that village or else- 
where, that are known to have resulted from it. 

5Cf. Joseph Lee, op. cit., p. 163; E. B. Mero, op. cit., p. 242. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 17 

The next city to acquire land for play uses was 
Boston in 1894, more than twenty years later; 
and there was no causal relation between these 
municipal acts, the latter being only an incident 
in the general development of provision for play 
in Boston which began in 1885. The action of 
Brookline is noteworthy simply as being the first 
instance of public provision of space for play in 
the United States. It was sporadic, however, 
local interest quickly subsiding, while apparatus 
and supervision were never provided. A motion 
for their provision was "laid on the table, indef- 
initely" on December 15, 1874. 

The opening of the "meadow" in Washington 
Park, Chicago, for team games, in 1876, has been 
mentioned by various writers® as a possible date 
for the origin of the play movement. An examina- 
tion of the annual reports of the South Park Com- 
missioners, however, disclosed the fact that no 
games were played in Washington Park until 

1886, when two tennis courts were first provided 
at the north end of this tract. That year two 
other courts were placed in Jackson Park, where 
permission was also given to play baseball. In 

1887, four additional tennis courts were added in 
Jackson Park and two baseball diamonds laid out 
and clayed; while the following year the number 
of courts and diamonds remained unchanged, with 
165 acres turfed in Jackson Park and 15 acres in 
Washington Park, the latter containing two 

^Cf. Joseph Lee, op. cit., p. 159 ; E. B. Mero, op. cit., p. 242. 



18 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

tennis courts but no baseball diamonds, although 
the privilege of playing ball was granted. Fifteen 
years were required to drain the ground and build 
up the soil so as to permit its being turfed. Two 
hay crops were harvested annually from the drier 
portions in these parks, hence the significance of 
the term ''meadow." Originally great swails and 
marshes covered the central areas of Washing- 
ton and Jackson Parks and the Midway which 
now connects them, and during stormy weather 
the waters of Lake Michigan were driven into 
these lowlands. Hence the great expense and 
time required to provide a playing surface. 

Aside from the error in date and the fact that 
the event in question was a conscious provision 
for play, the opening of the "meadow" in both 
Washington and Jackson Parks was not dynam- 
ically related to subsequent developments in 
provision for play in Chicago or elsewhere. In 
Chicago, for instance, the initiative of the recrea- 
tion-center development that later made famous 
the South Park System came from sources outside 
the park commission and contemporary with the 
work of the special park commission formed in 
1899. These sources may be designated as the 
early efforts by settlements and the associated 
charities of the west side of the city to provide 
play facilities for children during 1894 and 1897, 
where it was pointed out that children in the con- 
gested sections had no suitable space in which to 
play and did not make long trips to the large 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 19 

parks or the lake. The slogan of the small parks 
movement, therefore, came to be, ' ' Take the parks 
to the people, if they can not come to the parks ' ' ; 
hence the ''small parks" constructed in 1903-5. 
The Washington Park playfield of 1886 also fails 
to meet the second criteria of the origin of the 
play movement. 

Another date for the beginning of the move- 
ment mentioned by a well-known writer on play- 
ground activities is ''1898, when New York City 
opened some 31 playgrounds under the Board of 
Education. ' " The reasons given in the context in 
support of the statement are two: (1) that it "re- 
ceived abundant notice in the New York dailies ' ' ; 
and, (2) that "a number of cities took up the 
movement immediately afterwards." While ful- 
filling the first criteria that it was a conscious pro- 
vision for play, this event fails of the second if 
it cannot be proven that it was the first of a series 
of related events that are now recognized as the 
play movement, the developments in other cities 
beginning subsequently if not "immediately after- 
wards" as asserted. In order either to establish 
or refute the claim, two questions must be an- 
swered: (1) What are the dates of the beginning 
of provision for play in the respective cities of 
the United States? (2) Do they indicate that 
many began "immediately" after 1898? 

■^H. S. Curtis, The Play Movement and Its Significance, The 
Macmillan Co., 1917. The correct date, however, for the open- 
ing of the thirty-one schoolyard playgrounds was 1899, not 
1898. Cf. Lee, Zueblin et alia. Twenty playgrounds were 



20 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



Inasmuch as the advocate of the New York 
experiment as the beginning of the play move- 
ment did not support his assertion by a statement 
of the facts relative to provision by cities both 
before and after the year 1898, the writer has 
arranged Table I after a careful analysis of the 
whole period of playground history.^ 

TABLE I 
NuMBEB OF Cities in the United States, Reporting Super- 
vised Playgrounds Established for the First Time, 
By YELiRS 



Date 


No. 


Date 


No. 


Date 


No. 


Date 


No. 


Date 


No. 


1885.... 


1 


1897.... 


2 


1902..., 


2 


1907... 


6 


1912 


43 


1889 


2 


1898 


4 


1903. 


2 


1908... 


13 


1913 


70 


1893.... 


1 


1899 . 


1 


1904 


5 


1909 


35 


1915 


116 


1894 


2 


1900.... 


7 


1905... 


4 


1910. 


35 


1916 


43 


1896.... 


1 


1901 


5 


1906 


9 


1911 


43 


1917.. 


52 



Grand Total tor the Period 



.504 



An analysis of Table I discloses three facts 
that have an important relation to the origin of 
the play movement: (1) There were thirteen 
cities® that had provided supervised play facilities 
prior to 1899, the correct date for the opening of 
the thirty-one schoolyard playgrounds in New 

8The Playground and Recreation Association of America, 
upon whose published statistics the writer relied for the data 
contained relative to developments since its organization, did 
not furnish a report for 1914; that for 1915 represents two 
years of progress. 

^The names of these cities with their respective dates of 
beginning the play movement are as follows: Boston, 1885; 
New York, and Brooklyn, 1889 (these playgrounds were spo- 
radic and of short duration, the permanent establishment com- 
ing In Brooklyn in 1897, and in New York in 1899); Chicago, 
1894 (sporadic in 1894, permanent in 1898-1899); Philadelphia, 
1893; Providence, 1894; Pittsburgh, 1896; Baltimore and Mil- 
waukee, 1897; San Francisco (sporadic), Cleveland, Minne- 
apolis and Denver, 1898. The first playground in Louisville, 
1899, was planned by the same landscape architect who de- 
signed the Charlesbank outdoor gymnasium in Boston, in 1889. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 21 

York City. (2) Between 1899 and 1906, the date 
of the organization of the Playground Association 
of America, there were twenty-five cities that pro- 
vided for play, while between 1906 and 1910 there 
were fifty-five, the first great increase coming 
after the organization of the playground associa- 
tion rather than 'immediately after" the opening 
of schoolyard playgrounds in New York City. (3) 
During 1910, the first year that field secretaries 
were sent out by the playground association, and 
during each year since that time, the number of 
cities providing playgrounds for the first time 
was greater than that for the whole period be- 
tween 1899 and 1906. In so far as these three facts 
are related to the origin of the play movement they 
indicate that the number of cities making provi- 
sion for the first time slowly but steadily in- 
creased between 1885 and 1899, and that the 
greatest period of increase came after the organi- 
zation of the national playground association, and 
not as the result of any publicity that certain 
newspapers of New York City may have given to 
the movement during the summer of 1899. 

Since Boston is the city referred to by the 
earliest date of the table, 1885, the facts relative 
to events there and their influence upon the play 
movement will now be analyzed in connection with 
the study of the last date that has been frequently 
mentioned as marking the origin of the move- 
ment, the provision of sand gardens in Boston in 
1885. 



22 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The one provision for play which has been 
most frequently designated as the origin of the 
movement is the establishment of sand gardens 
in Boston." Dr. Marie E. Zakrsewska, while vis- 
iting in Berlin during the summer in 1885, ob- 
served heaps of sand in the public parks in which 
the children of both the rich and the poor were 
permitted to play under supervision of the police. 
As a result of her report by letter to Mrs. Kate 
Gannet Wells, chairman of the executive commit- 
tee of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association, a large heap of sand was placed in 
the yards of the Parmenter Street Chapel and the 
West End Nursery. The latter experiment was 
unsuccessful since "the children there were 
hardly two years old and cared little for it, ' '^^ but 
at the former an average of fifteen children con- 
nected with the chapel attended three days in the 
week during July and August, 1885, and, under 
the guidance of a lady living in the neighborhood, 
dug in the sand with their little wooden shovels and made 
countless sand pies, which were re-made the next day with 
undismayed alacritj'. They sang their songs and marched 
in their small processions, and when weary, were gathered 
in the motherly arms of the matron.^^ 

loCf. Joseph Lee, op. cit., p. 125; E. B. Mero, op. cit., p. 240; 
S. V. Tsanoff, "Children's Playgrounds," Municipal Affairs, 
1898, p. 293; C. M. Robinson, "Improvement of City Life," 
Atlantic Monthly, April, 1899, pp. 533-36; Sadie American, 
"The Movement for Small Playgrounds," American Journal of 
Sociology, Sept., 1898, pp. 159-76. 

^'^Annual Report Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Axsociation, 1885. 




EARLY SAND GARDEN IN BOSTON 

[courtesy miss El.T^EN M. TOVEr] 




^^\T;I.^' S('n(K»T.YAKD t»lay<;uoi'ni». p.uston 

Lt'Oi'KTKSV MISS Er,il,EN M. TOUEu] 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 23 

During the summer of 1886 ''three piles of 
yellow sand were placed in the yards of the Chil- 
dren's Mission, Parmenter Street Chapel and 
Warrenton Street Chapel," as a result of the 
success of the preceding season. These sand piles 
were provided for children under twelve years 
of age. During the first years there was no su- 
pervision except that given voluntarily by inter- 
ested mothers or other women living in the re- 
spective neighborhoods. Matrons were employed, 
however, during the summer of 1887, when the 
number of sand gardens was increased to ten, of 
which one was in a school yard, while most of the 
others were located in the courts of tenement 
houses. The method of supervision by matrons 
was followed until 1893, when a superintendent 
of all sand gardens with assistants, kindergart- 
ners, located at each, were employed. Digging 
instruments and building blocks were furnished, 
games played, and "occupation work" encour- 
aged. By 1899 the number of playgrounds of this 
type, conducted by the Association in Boston, had 
increased to twenty-one, of which all but one were 
on schoolyards. During this year, the city council 
appropriated $3,000 toward their support. 

Table II summarizes the first sixteen years 
of history of the playground activities of the 
Association by years, showing the number of 
sand gardens maintained, the cost of their sup- 
port, the number of hours per day and the num- 
ber of days per week during which they were 



24 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



TABLE 

The Development of Playgrounds by Massachusetts 



Year 


No. 


Cost of 
Mainte- 
nance* 


Operation 
per "Week 


Period 


Location 


1885 


2 


Service 
donated 


3 hours on 
3 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


Mission 
yard and 
nursery 


1886 


3 


Service 
donated 


3 hours on 
3 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


Mission 
yards 


1887 


10 


Toys $9.00; 
matrons 
employed 


3 hours on 
3 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


Mission 
yards 


1888 


lot 


Matrons 
employed 


3 hours on 
4 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


7 schoolyards ; 
2 courts ; 1 
vacant lot 


1889 


lit 


$928.04 


3 hours on 
4 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


One lot 
added to 
above 


1890 


17§ 


Expenses ? 


3 hours on 
4 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


Mostly 
school- 
yards 


1891 


10 


Expenses ? 


3 hours on 
4 days 


6 weeks, 
July and 
August 


Mostly 
school- 
yards 


1892 


10 


Expenses ? 


3 hours on 
4 days 


36 days in 
July and 
August 


Mostly 
school- 
yards 


1893 


10 


$1,407.71 


3hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


36 days in 
Julv and 
August 


9 school- 
yards; 
1 on lot 


1894 


10 


$1,395.00 


3hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


50 days in 
July and 
August 


All on 

schoolyards 


1895 


10 


$1,526.38 


3hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


10 weeks 


All on 

schoolyards 


1896 


10 


$1,688.00 


3 hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


10 weeks 


All on 

school.vards 


1897 


10 


$1,480.32 


3 hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


10 weeks 


All on 

schoolyards 


1898 


12 


$1,849.00 


3 hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


10 weeks 


All on 

schoolyards 


1899 


21 


$4,313.77 


3 hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


All on 
10 weeks school.vards 


1900 


21 


$4,200.00 


3 hrs. every 
day ex. Sun. 


10 weeks 


All on 

schoolyards 



*Sand was donated in every rase. 
tSandi)alls and shovels were sent to eight different localities in addition 
to these ten playgrrounds. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 25 



II. 



Emekgency and 


Hygiene Association, from 1885 to 1900 


Public Subsidy 


Supervision 


Average Daily 
Attendance 


Play Room 
Experiment 




Voluntary by 
mothers in 
vicinity 


Average of 15 
daily 










Voluntary by 
mothers in 
vicinity 


Not given 








None 


Employed ma- 
trons 


Not given 








None 


Employed ma- 
trons 


400, all play- 
grounds 








$1,000 and 
Charlesbank 
opened for men 


Employed ma- 
trons 


1,000 for all 


First opened 16 
weeks 12-9 p. 
m. after Jan.l 


Charlesbank 
Outdoor Gym, 
for men. 


Employed ma- 
trons 


Not given 


16 weeks 12-9 
p. m. after 
Jan. 1 


Charlesbank Out- 
door Gym. for 
men and women. 


Employed ma- 
trons 


Not given 


16 weeks 12-9 
p. m. after 
Jan. 1 


Charlesbank Out- 
door Gym. for 
men and women. 


Employed ma- 
trons 


1,210 daily; 
seasonal 43,560 


Playroom taken 
over by Nat. 
Ed. Union 


Charlesbank Out- 
door Gym. for 


Supt. with 

kindergarten 
assistants 


1,400 daily 




men and women. 




Charlesbank Out- 
door Gym. for 


Supt. with 
kindergarten 
assistants 


1,588 daily; 
seasonal 79,400 




men and women. 




Franklin Field 


Supt. with 22 
assistants 


1,804 daily; 
seasonall28,240 








Brighton play- 
ground pur- 


Supt. with 22 
assistants 


1,802 daily 




chased 




Charlesbank, 
Franklin 


Supt. with 22 
assistants 


1,827 daily 




Field, 
Brighton 




20 playgrounds 


Supt. with 22 
assistants 


2,080 daily 




added 




$3,000 by city 


Supt. with 66 
supervisors 


4,000 daily 




council II 




$3,000 by city 
councilll 


Supt. with 64 
supervisors 


4,300 daily 




' 



tOne of these was in Brookline, Mass., outside city limits. 
§Two in Brookline, one in Charlestown. two In South Boston, two in 
Roxbury. while the remaining ten were in Boston. 
11 Added for sand gardens. 



26 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

open, the months of the year and the total num- 
ber of days of operation, the nature of their 
respective sites, the dates and extent of public 
subsidy, the method of supervision and number 
and type of supervisors, the record of attendance 
giving the average per day for each season and the 
total for the respective summers, and the history 
of the play room experiment, that is, the conduct 
of indoor play for a given, brief period during 
the winter. This table is compiled from the state- 
ments published in the annual reports of the 
Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Associa- 
tion from 1885 to 1901 inclusive. 

Analysis of this table discloses, (1) an in- 
crease from two to, twenty-one playgrounds; (2) a 
transition from support and service through do- 
nations of materials or time to an annual budget 
of $4,200 with a maximum of $4,313.77 in one of 
the later years; (3) from three days to six days 
per week; (4) from 18 to 60 days per season, dur- 
ing July and August; (5) from mission yards and 
tenement courts to schoolyards and parks; (6) 
from support entirely by philanthropic subscrip- 
tions to public subsidy of $3,000 annually; (7) 
from volunteer and untrained supervision to paid 
and trained supervisors under the direction of a 
superintendent; (8) from an average attendance 
of 15 per day at one playground to 4,300 per day 
on twenty-one playgrounds; (9) the development 
of indoor play provision which after three years 
of experimentation was taken over by another 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 27 

association in the city; and (10) the actual con- 
duct of sand gardens in three cities other than 
Boston. 

Two questions arise which, if answered in the 
affirmative, will establish the beginning of the 
play movement in the United States with the 
sand piles of Boston in 1885. First, Did the devel- 
opment of similar facilities in other cities come 
subsequently and through impulses received from 
them? and second, Did the incorporation in the 
play movement of facilities for adolescents and 
adults result from the sand gardens which were 
designed in Boston for the play of children ? That 
each of these questions must be answered in the 
affirmative is established by the following two 
groups of facts: (1) those relative to develop- 
ments within Boston, and (2) the influence of 
these events upon developments in other cities. 

B. Influence of the "sand gardens'' within 
Boston. Relative to early developments in pro- 
vision for play in Boston, there is conclusive evi- 
dence that pioneer work in both the parks and the 
schoolyards, leading from philanthropic to pub- 
lic support, resulted from the sand pile experi- 
ment of 1885 and the unbroken series of sub- 
sequent summer provisions made by the Massa- 
chusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association 
from that date until 1899, when their play-' 
grounds, which at that time had increased in num- 
ber to twenty-one, were supported in part by an 
appropriation made by the School Committee of 



28 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the City of Boston. Table II calls attention to 
eight events which indicate a relationship between 
contemporaneons developments in providing for 
playgrounds in Boston and the work of the Asso- 
ciation. 

The first of these events growing immediately 
out of the influence of the sand gardens was the 
appropriation by the park department in 1889 of 
$1,000 to grade and grass a vacant plot for play- 
ground uses, the management being left to the 
Association." The second and third events per- 
tained to the construction and operation respect- 
ively of the Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium in 
1889-91. The construction of this playground was 
undertaken by the Park Department, in response 
to an appeal by the ' ' playground committee, ' ' 
appointed by the Association in 1887, for aid in 
providing playgrounds. They converted a ten- 
acre tract along the Charles River in a congested 
section of the city into an open-air gymnasium 
for boys and men in 1889, and for girls and 
women in 1891. This playground, known as the 
Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium, was fenced, 
parked, equipped with swings, ladders, see-saws, 
a one-fifth mile running track, a sand garden, and 
provided with wading, rowing, and bathing facil- 
ities, all free to the public. Land and equipment 
were contributed by the park department, opera- 
tion by private associations, that of the children 's 
and women's division being entrusted to the 

i^Cf. Annual Report of Massachusetts Emergency and Hy- 
giene Association for 1890. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 29 

Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Associa- 
tion. In confirmation of the foregoing are the fol- 
lowing three statements: 

The sand pile work having been started so successfully, 
the park commissioners of Boston investigated the matter and 
decided to use some of the city parks for similar purposes. 
They also fitted up the Charlesbank open air gymnasium.^* 

The success of the sand heaps led the park commis- 
sioners to place the women's division of Charlesbank under 
the control of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association.^^ 

The new work of the Association this past year has been 
the management of the Women's Division of Charlesbank, 
the name by which that portion of the Park System of Boston 
is designated that lies along the Charles River between 
Cambridge and Craigie Street Bridges.^^ 

The fourth, fifth, and sixth events indicative 
of the influence of the experience and activity of 
the Association were related to other park devel- 
opments of Boston and the surrounding environ- 
ment. These were, respectively, (1) the incorpo- 
ration of the plan of providing ''numerous small 
squares, playgrounds, and parks in the midst of 
the dense populations" in the program of the 
Metropolitan Park Commission of Boston organ- 
ized in 1892; (2) the purchase of Franklin Field 
by the park department of the city of Boston in 
1894 as an initial step in that direction, a recogni- 

. "H. H. Buxton, in unpublished thesis of 1899, from which 
sections are quoted in B. B. Mero, American Playgrounds, pp. 
243-52. 

i^Charles Mulford Robinson, "Improvement of City Life," 
Atlantic Monthly, 1899, pp. 533-36. 

^^Annual Report Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association, 1892. 



30 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

tion of the popular interest in playgrounds that 
prevailed in Boston at that time, and a step far 
in advance of other cities; and (3) the purchase 
of land for the Brighton playground in 1895 at 
the cost of $25,000. The incorporation of play- 
grounds in the plans of the Metropolitan Park 
Commission was made by Mr. Charles Eliot, one 
of the most active individuals in the work of 
creating the commission and a member of it, on 
October 6, 1892, when he outlined the work of the 
Commission as follows:" 

As I conceive it, the scientific ''park system" for a dis- 
trict such as ours would include (1) spaces on the ocean 
front, (2) as much as possible of the shores and islands of 
the bay, (3) the courses of the larger tidal estuaries, .... 
(4) two or three larger areas of wild forest on the outer rim 
of the inhabited areaj (5) numerous small squares, play- 
grounds, and parks in the midst of the dense populations. 

The first annual report of the Metropolitan 
Park Commission of Boston,^^ under whose juris- 
diction were placed the parking authorities of 
eleven cities and twenty-five towns, devotes four- 
teen pages to a discussion of plans for small 
parks or playgrounds, beginning with : 

The subject of smaller open spaces for local playgrounds 
or "breathing spaces" as they are appropriately called, is 
one so different in its nature as to require a special con- 
sideration. 

Then follow maps of Charlesbank and other 
parked playgrounds in Boston and vicinity, some 

"Zueblin, American. Municipal Progress, The Macmillan 
Co., 1916, p. 285. 

^^Annual Report Metropolitan Park Comviission of Boston, 
1893; pp. 67-81. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 31 

of which had already been constructed while 
others were only proposed, showing that the idea 
of a small area equipped for play and located 
near the homes of the people had obtained at that 
time a definite place in the plans of the park de- 
partment. Charlesbank had demonstrated the 
value of these facilities, and the sand gardens 
had first shown the need for them. 

The seventh event indicative of the influence 
of the sand gardens upon subsequent provisions 
for play in Boston was the development of public 
support and control of the schoolyard play- 
grounds. Since 1888 the Massachusetts Emer- 
gency and Hygiene Association had conducted 
seven or more playgrounds of the sand-garden 
type on schoolyards, and by the summer of 1898, 
the number had increased to twelve. During that 
summer Mayor Quincy of Boston opened twenty 
schoolyard playgrounds. This experiment was 
not successful because of lack of leadership, the 
grounds being placed under the supervision of 
caretakers. As one boy expressed it, ''there was 
nothin' to do and no discipline." In a fortnight 
these playgrounds were almost deserted. The fol- 
lowing summer, 1899, at the suggestion of the 
mayor, the school committee appropriated $3,000 
toward the support of certain schoolyard play- 
grounds, the funds to be spent under the direc- 
tion of the Massachusetts Emergency and 
Hygiene Association. Twenty-one playgrounds 
in all were conducted by this arrangement 



32 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

between the scliool committee and the association, 
sixty supervisors were employed, $4,313.77 ex- 
pended for materials and supervision, and 4,000 
children attended them daily on the average. 
During the summer of 1900 the experiment was 
repeated with the result that sixty-four super- 
visors were employed, $4,200 expended, while the 
average daily attendance was 4,300. In the sum- 
mer of 1901, the transition from philanthropic 
to public control, as well as support, was effected 
by the withdrawal from the Association of finan- 
cial assistance on the part of the school commit- 
tee, and the establishment, under their own 
administration, of ^'four vacation schools and 
three playgrounds ' ' for which $5,000 were appro- 
priated. During the summer of 1902, $7,500 were 
appropriated and "seven schools and five play- 
grounds" were maintained. The Massachusetts 
Emergency and Hygiene Association, however, 
continued to conduct playgrounds as they did 
before public support was added; twelve for the 
summer of 1901, with an average daily attendance 
of 3,479, for which $2,462.33 were expended from 
voluntary contributions. 

Admission by the school committee of its 
dependence upon the Association and confirma- 
tion of the statements concerning the beginnings of 
public support of schoolyard playgrounds is con- 
tained in their annual report of 1902, as follows : 

In May, 1900, an appropriation of $3,000 was made for 
the maintenance of vacation schools The success of 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 3S 

these schools was such that an appropriation of $5,000 was 
made for their support during the summer of 1901, and foui 
schools and three playgrounds were established for a term 
of six weeks beginning Jiuly 8 For the further con- 
tinuance of vacation schools and playgrounds during the 
summer of 1902, the school committee appropriated $7,500, 
and seven schools and five playgrounds were conducted .... 
for a term beginning July 7 and closing August 15. 

In addition to the school playgrounds maintained by the 
city, the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association 
(which for many years has been interested in and supported 
playgrounds in various schoolyards), the Massachusetts Civic 
League, the Brighthelmston Club, the Women's Educational 
and Industrial Club, and other associations and individuals 

were allowed to use the various school premises To the 

public spirited and kindly women (the Massachusetts Emer- 
gency and Hygiene Association) who have personally inter- 
ested themselves in this work is due a debt of gratitude for 
their unselfish concern in the happiness of little children 
during the long and unoccupied summer months.^^ 

In the paper entitled ' ' Play Grounds and Sand 
Gardens," read before the Montreal Local 
Council of Women, in April, 1902, by Miss Ellen 
M, Tower, Chairman of the Playground Commit- 
tee of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association, the following statement of the rela- 
tion of the work of that association to the devel- 
opment of the first publically administered 
schoolyard playgrounds in Boston was made : 

In 1899 .... municipal aid was rendered to the play- 
grounds when, at the suggestion of Mayor Quincy, the School 
Committee appropriated $3,000 for expenses connected with 

'L^Annual Report School Committee, Boston, 1902, pp. 25-28, 
also Public School Document No. 14, on Vacation Schools, ia02. 



34 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the opening of certain schoolhouse yards during the summer 
vacation, to be spent under the direction of the Massachusetts 
Emergency and Hygiene Association. 

This experiment was sufficiently successful to warrant 
continuing in 1900, when the school committee again appro- 
priated $3,000 to be spent by our Association 

In 1901 the School Committee, thinking that the time 
draws near when play will be, or should be, considered an 
integral part of education, and that therefore the playgrounds 
and vacation schools should be alike under the care of their 
own Board, declined to bestow money upon the Emergency 
Association, but established .... sand gardens under their 

own supervision They paid the Association the implied 

compliment of adopting its methods and asking its advice. 
This seeming reverse is, in fact, our greatest triumph. We 
have been doing as amateurs, and, as a temporary expedient 
for helping the children, what the educational branches of 
our Government should do professionally and systematically. 
Next season we hope to be driven still further afield, and 
may conclude that our mission is accomplished. 

The eighth event indicative further of the 
relation of the work of the Massachusetts Emer- 
gency and Hygiene Association to that of other 
philanthropic societies making similar provision 
for play in Boston was that of the construction 
of a playground by the Massachusetts Civic 
League in 1901, after the plan of those previously 
conducted by the Association. Direct confirma- 
tion of this fact is presented in thf> report of the 
League for that year. 

We have a children's corner modeled upon the work of 
the Emergency and Hygiene Association. Indeed the loca- 
tion was chosen and the principal apparatus got under the 
advice of Miss Ellen M. Tower, Chairman of the Playgrounds 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 36 

Committee of the Association, who has had so large a part 
in carrying on this branch of the work of that Association.^" 

The direct influence of the sand gardens of 
Boston, first conducted in 1885 and permanently 
established in 1887, upon the provision of both 
philanthropic and public play facilities in that 
city, is shown by the analysis above. It has been 
found that, while the earliest efforts on the part 
of the Emergency Association were in behalf of 
pre-adolescent children, later activities included 
the provision of facilities for youth and maturity. 
The first of these events was the influence which 
the Association exerted upon the park depart- 
ment which resulted in the building of Charles- 
bank Outdoor Gymnasium, the section for men 
being finished in 1889, and that for women in 
1891. A second event was the incorporation of 
the idea of constructing ' ' small squares and play- 
grounds" in the plan of the Metropolitan Park 
Commission of Boston in 1893. A third event was 
the opening of Franklin Field, of which forty 
acres were devoted to team games and athletics, 
in 1894. The fourth event was the provision for 
Brighton Playground in 1895. A fifth connection 
was made in 1899, when, with the aid of the School 
Committee, twenty-one playgrounds were main- 
tained that summer, of which three were designed 
particularly for boys between twelve and fifteen 
years of age. Concerning this provision. Miss 
Tower said: ^ 

^oAnnual Report of Massachusetts Civic League, 1901. 



36 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Eighteen sand gardens were devoted to the little children 
and to all the larger boys who wished to play with the little 
ones, to aid the matrons, or to sit quietly by and sew or read 
or play checkers. The other three, as an experiment, were 
provided with a limited outfit of gymnastic apparatus, and, 
under the care of young men trained in the art of physical 
culture, were designed especially for boys from twelve to 
fifteen years of age. This experiment was sufficiently suc- 
cessful to warrant continuing in 1900.^^ 

In 1901 the School Committee decided to 
administer playgrounds on their own account but 
"they paid the Association the implied compli- 
ment of adopting its methods and asking its 
advice." In that year, also, the Massachusetts 
Civic League opened its first playground, a 
"model playground," containing a "children's 
corner" and a "big boy's playground" as well 
as a space for the older girls ; and in planning it, 
the advice of Miss Tower of the Association 
was followed. Thus the question whether the 
incorporation in the play movement of facilities 
for adolescents and adults resulted from the sand 
gardens experiment is answered in the affirma- 
tive. 

C. Influence of Boston upon other cities. 
The facts relative to the second question raised 
above, Did the development of initial play pro- 
vision in other cities come subsequently and 
through impulses derived from the early expe- 
rience of conducting sand gardens in Boston f will 
now be analyzed. There are five types of sources 

2iEllen M. Tower, "Play Grounds and Sand Gardens," 
World Wide, April 2, 1902. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 37 

of information: (1) the opinions of contemporary 
writers on play and playgrounds; (2) the asser- 
tions by the Massachusetts Emergency and 
Hygiene Association that other cities consulted 
them before inaugurating playgrounds; (3) the 
admissions of these organizers of playgrounds in 
other cities than Boston; (4) the visit of Miss 
Ellen M. Tower, chairman of the playground 
committee of the Association, to Baltimore, to 
deliver a lecture upon playgrounds at the request 
of a committee in that city, which had the subject 
under advisement; and (5) the structure and con- 
cept of the function of the early playgrounds in 
all cities. 

Among the comments made by those who 
wrote contemporaneously with the genetic stage 
of the movement is that of H. H. Buxton, a grad- 
uate student in the International Training School 
of the Young Men's Christian Association at 
Springfield, Massachusetts, in his Master's 
thesis, an unpublished manuscript, in 1899. Con- 
cerning the relation of the sand gardens of Bos- 
ton in 1885 to the development of playgrounds in 
other cities up to 1899, he made the sweeping 
declaration : 

This was the starting point of the present playground 
movement in America. 

Buxton did not present any facts in support 
of his claim other than that Miss Tower, chair- 
man of the playgrounds committee that was in 
charge of the sand gardens in Boston, lectured in 



38 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Baltimore at the invitation of the committee there 
that was considering the provision of play- 
grounds. He wrote so near to the time of the 
events which he was studying that the relation 
probably seemed too obvious to necessitate 
analysis or support. 

Another statement of the influence of Boston 
on the beginnings of provision for play by other 
cities is the following by Charles Mulford Robin- 
son, later a playground architect and adviser, 
written also in 1899 : 

In Boston, which was the pioneer, the municipal sand 
piles of 1887 were the first pathetic expression of a need of 
a playground and of an effort to satisfy it. Their success 
has led to their adoption in many large cities. 

The word municipal is here used in a very 
loose sense, not meaning public support and con- 
trol; and the date is slightly erroneous owing to 
the fact that the permanent establishment of the 
sand gardens did not occur until 1887, although 
the initial experiment was made two years prior 
to that date. The reports of the Massachusetts 
Emergency and Hygiene Association give 1887 
as the date of permanent establishment, a state- 
ment that was somewhat arbitrary since there 
was no change in structure or concept of function 
at that date except the employment of matrons 
to supervise the children who used the gardens. 

A third declaration made contemporaneously 
with the early stages of the play movement was 
that by Joseph Lee who was associated with the 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 39 

development of the movement in Boston, being 
for several years chairman of the playground 
committee of the Massachusetts Civic League, 
and who made a careful study of published re- 
ports of societies conducting playgrounds before 
1900, in the preparation of his volume entitled 
Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy. 
After describing the origin of the Boston sand 
gardens, he sets out to relate the developments 
in other cities by the following sentence : 

The first city, so far as I can ascertain, to follow the 
example of Boston was Philadelphia, in which, in 1893, two 
summer playgrounds were started by philanthropic people. 
In 1895 the City Council, in response to a petition from the 
Civic Club and a large number of other organizations, opened 
the available schoolyards, four of which were equipped as 
sand gardens, and appropriated $1,000 to carry on these latter. 

While there is no analysis of the facts per- 
taining to the influence of Boston upon Philadel- 
phia, his statement represents an opinion based 
upon a study of the history of the period. 

Before 1900, no statement was made, as far as 
the writer is aware, to the contrary of the opinion 
expressed by the three authors quoted above. The 
consensus of view seems to have been in favor of 
Boston as the pioneer in the play movement. 

Contemporary confirmation of the above opin- 
ions was made by the Massachusetts Emergency 
and Hygiene Association in its annual reports 
for 1892, 1897, and 1898, respectively, as follows : 

Boston playground ideas have been carried to New York 
City, and to Providence, R. I. 



40 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The people who have started playgrounds in New York, 
Philadelphia, and Providence have consulted and in a measure 
followed the methods of the Massachusetts Emergency and 
Hygiene Association. 

The sand gardens have been much written about in 
magazines and journals and many inquiries have been made 
in regard to their management. New York, Philadelphia, 
and Providence long since established playgrounds unques- 
tionably better than ours, but in the beginning they came to 
Boston for suggestions and advice. In 1897, the United 
Women of Maryland asked that some one might be sent to 
Baltimore to talk to them on the subject, and the chairman 
of your committee went. Brooklyn, N. Y., Newark, Provi- 
dence, and Worcester sent representatives to study our work, 
and this Spring Chicago, Portland, and Manchester, England, 
have written for information. The experiment seems hopeful 
to all interested, if we may judge by the reports that reach us. 

The foregoing "declarations indicate that the 
nine' cities beside Boston that took initial steps 
or were contemplating provision prior to 1898 
(namely, Philadelphia, New York, Providence, 
Brooklyn, Baltimore, Newark, Worcester, Chi- 
cago, and Portland) came to Boston for sugges- 
tions and advice. Ostensibly here was a cause- 
and-effect relationship characteristic of a series 
of events common to movements. 

Confirmation of the claims expressed by the 
Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Associa- 
tion is made in the annual reports of two societies 
providing playgrounds before 1900. In that of 
the Union for Practical Progress which initiated 
the movement in Providence, for the year 1897, 
occurs the following frank admission of a con- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 41 

scions effort to copy methods followed in Boston, 
the particular references being to the sand gar- 
dens and the Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium: 

Their growth (referring to the playgrounds of Provi- 
dence) has been quite as rapid and encouraging as was that 

of Boston during the early years of the movement 

One phase of development lies along the lines of the open-air 
gymnasium, with apparatus and grassy playground. The 
success of this institution in Boston should be called to the 
attention of public spirited citizens, that reservations of 
lawns may be made in needy parts of the city.^^ 

Eegarding the origin of the movement in 
Brooklyn, in 1897, two references to Boston as 
the prototype are made in the annual report of 
the department of parks for that year. The first 
was that by the committee which had charge of a 
small initial playground in City Park during the 
summer of 1897, while the second was by the 
secretary of the park department. Both disclose 
a conscious dependence upon Boston: 

So far as we are aware, the City Park playground is the 
first one to have been established in Brooklyn. Other cities 
have for several years made similar provision for the children 
either through private enterprise or through some one of the 
municipal departments. For ten years playgrounds have been 
opened during the summer in Boston. Private individuals 
furnish the funds and the board of education grants the use 
of the grounds. ^^ 

The Department was petitioned, in the latter part of the 
summer, to start open air gymnasiums in the parks. The 

^Wourth Annual Report of Joint Committee on Summer 
Playgrounds, Providence, 1897. 

^^Annual Report of Dept. of Parks, Brooklyn, 1887, p. 45. 



42 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

subject was taken into consideration, and investigation of 
the work in Boston was made.^* 

Secondary statements derived from those who 
had charge of the initial work of providing for 
play in Baltimore and Providence are made by 
Buxton. 

To the United Women of Llaryland is due the credit of 
starting the playground movement through inspiration that 
came from Boston, largely through an address given in Balti- 
more by Miss Ellen M. Tower, chairman of the Comittee on 
Playgrounds of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association.^^ 

The Union for Practical Progress started the playground 
movement in Providence, R. I., in 1893, after investigating 
what was done in Boston.^^ 

Two references have previously been made to 
the fact that Miss Ellen M. Tower, for many 
years chairman of the playground committee of 
the Association conducting the sand gardens in 
Boston, visited Baltimore in 1897 at the request 
of the United Women of Maryland, and delivered 
an address on sand gardens. ^^ This address is 
eloquent evidence of the influence of Boston upon 
other cities during the early stages of the move- 
ment.^® 

Mute evidence of a relationship, were this 
testimony necessary, is present in the very struc- 

^*Anmial Report of Dept. of Parks, Brooklyn, 1887, p. 25. 
-5H. H. Buxton, "History of the Playground Movement," 
in Mero's American Playgrounds (written in 1899), p. 248. 

-'Ellen M. Tower, Annv/il Report Massachusetts Emer- 
gency and Hygiene Association, 1898. 

-Sit is also significant in this connection to note that Miss 
Tower delivered a similar address in Montreal, Canada, in 1902. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 43 

ture of the playgrounds themselves ; in every city 
the sand garden type was followed. If they were 
not modeled after Boston, then the coincidence 
is phenomenal. In the third part of this inves- 
tigation the writer has chosen to designate the 
first stage through which the play movement has 
passed as the ^'sand garden" stage in recognition 
of the nature and uniformity of structure and 
concept of function that prevailed. The descrip- 
tions of these playgrounds will also be presented 
there. 

D. The conclusions — The evidence studied 
is unmistakably in support of the view that the 
initial action in provision for play in Philadel- 
phia, Providence, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Chicago, 
Newark, Worcester, Portland, and New York was 
the result of an impulse derived from the experi- 
ence of Boston. In the absence of any evidence to 
the contrary, it is reasonable to infer that these 
were the ''many large cities" referred to by Rob- 
inson, and also the explanation of the expression 
of Lee, "the first city, so far as I can ascertain, to 
follow the example of Boston." Provision in Bos- 
ton preceded that in thirteen cities, as shown by 
Table I, by a lapse of time sufficient to permit in- 
formation to have reached them before 1899 con- 
cerning the action of both philanthropic and pub- 
lic agencies of Boston, while in each of these cities 
the initial provision was identical in structure 
and function with that of Boston. In each of the 
thirteen cities, as in Boston, provision for chil- 



M THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

dren under twelve years of age preceded that 
for older boys and girls and adults, as has been 
shown by Lee.^** A universal and distinctive fea- 
ture of equipment in each of them, as in Boston, 
was the sand pile; and in every instance, philan- 
thropic maintenance preceded j)ublic support 
and control. 

The facts relative to the origin of the play 
movement have thus been analyzed. The incep- 
tion of the movement has been traced to the sand 
piles of Boston, in 1885. It has been disclosed: 
(1) that the play movement in Boston dated from 
the sand gardens conducted by the Massachusetts 
Emergency and Hygiene Association and was 
aided and directed by both their example and the 
personnel in charge of them; (2) that the devel- 
opment of similar facilities in other cities came 
subsequently and through motives received from 
the Boston sand gardens experiments; and (3) 
that the incorporation in the movement of facili- 
ties for adolescents and adults were logical 
attempts to make an adjustment to a social situa- 
tion with respect to which the sand piles of Bos- 
ton of 1885 were the first of a connected series of 
provisions for play that passed from philan- 
thropic to public support through action by both 
park and school boards, and were later repeated 
in other cities. In the following section, the 
respective stages through which the play move- 
ment has since passed will be analyzed. 

29 Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
pp. 123 ff. 



III. THE STAGES OF THE PLAY 
MOVEMENT 

A survey of the history of the play movement 
discloses seven periods in its evolution that are 
characterized by the incorporation of particular 
features in its structure correlative with an 
emphasis upon given changes in the concept of 
its function. These periods of emphasis upon 
given features of structure and function may be 
defined as ^'stages" in its evolution; the term 
"stage" signifying a period in a development 
or a degree of advancement in a process. It is 
not understood, however, that these "stages" 
were mutually exclusive, that is, that their essen- 
tial traits did not retain a permanent place in the 
movement, neither is it meant that the distin- 
guishing features of a given "stage" were pres- 
ent in all contemporaneous provisions for play, 
nor that they represented the average provision 
at a specified time. The "stages," as the term is 
here used, were more or less clearly defined peri- 
ods of emphasis by the leaders of the movement 
upon certain phases of its structure and the con- 
cept of its function correlative with their incor- 
poration by a portion, if not all, of the societies 
and communities making contemporary provision 
for play. 

The titles chosen by the present writer to 
designate the ' ' stages ' ' of the play movement and 
the dates that roughly approximate the periods 

45 



46 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

of their respective manifestations are as follows : 
(1) the ''sand garden" stage, dominant during 
1885-95; (2) the ''model playground" stage, 
about 1895-1900; (3) the "small park" stage, 
about 1900-5; (4) the "recreation center" stage, 
1905-12; (5) the "civic art and welfare" stage, 
1912-15; (6) the "neighborhood organization" 
stage, 1915-18; and (7) the "community service" 
stage, since about 1918. The facts relative to the 
particular features of structure and concept of 
function that received emphasis during these 
respective periods or "stages" will now be ana- 
lyzed from the standpoint of the evidence, if any, 
that they contain concerning the evolution of the 
play movement in the United States. 

A. The ''sand garden" stage, 1885-95. The 
term "sand garden"^ designates that form of 
provision which consisted of a sand heap or 
sand box with or without other apparatus such 
as swings and see-saws. The sand garden was 
located out of doors, in settlement yards, tene- 
ment courts, school yards, or in parks, and was 
designed for the use of children under twelve 
years of age. With the single exception of the 
Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium of 1889-91, 
which also included a sand garden in its equip- 
ment, it was the universal provision for play dur- 
ing the first decade of the movement. 

As disclosed in the discussion above flof the 
origin of the play movement, the two earliest sand 

iQther names for this type of provision are: sand piles, 
sand heaps, sand bins, sand boxes, sand courts. 



THE STAGES OP THE PLAY MOVEMENT 47 

gardens were placed on mission chapel and 
nursery yards in Boston in 1885. Ten, in all, were 
located in chapel yards, tenement courts, and 
schoolyards in 1887 ; one in a park in 1889 ; with 
a transfer of all but one to schoolyards by 1894, 
when ten were maintained by the Massachusetts 
Emergency and Hygiene Association in Boston. 

A description of these sand gardens, given by 
the chairman of the committee of the Association 
in charge, is as follows: 

The place is the shady side of a school yard. It must be 
shaded, as it is impossible to play on hot bricks in summer 
with the burning sun overhead. The time, therefore, is regu- 
lated by the falling of the shadows. 

In the shadow stands a wooden box with a heavy cover, 
padlocked tightly at either end. In the box is the sand, and 
in the basement of the school building are the toys and ma- 
terials for work or play. If the kindly shadows fall in the 
morning the gate is swung open at nine, and long before the 
hour a crowd of little boys and girls has gathered on the 
sidewalk, or if in the afternoon, the children do not assemble 
until two o'clock. At fifteen minutes before the hour of 
opening, the matrons enter the yard and admit some of the 
larger children who, under their direction, must sweep and 
gather up the litter in the yard, consign it to the waste bar- 
rel, bring out from the basement of the building the seats, 
pails, and shovels, lift the cover from the sand box, and 
arrange the toys in different parts of the yard that the 
children may go to the spot, where for instance the blocks 
are placed, if they wish to play with blocks. This done, 
the key is turned and the waiting crowd let in as the clock 
strikes. . To open and close punctually lends an air of seri- 
ousness and importance, and the children enjoy and respect 
a certain amount of discipline. 



48 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

When once in the yard, the babies flock to the sand box, 
their elders seek for toys or books, one monitor distributes 
horse reins, another skipping ropes or toy brooms, and there 
is a rush for the seats. Nothing adds so much to the com- 
fort of children and mothers as plenty of movable benches. 
Sometimes there is marching to the sound of a drum, and the 
waving of numberless flags. On two days in the week sewing 
cards and bright worsteds are the chief attraction, on two 
other days brilliantly colored soldiers, animals, rough riders, 
or hospital nurses are distributed to be ''cut out." There 
are, perhaps, seven or eight pairs of scissors in a yard, each 
pair hung upon a red string to pass over the head of the 
urchin using it. This fortunate youngster sits comfortably 
and prolongs his pleasure, as opposite him against the wall 
stands a wriggling line of his comrades awaiting their turn. 

They are much more excited and interested than they 
would be if there were scissors enough for all. The express 
carts run continually, two boys or girls pulling, two babies 
riding inside. Fifteen minutes is the usual time allowed for 
a trip. 

Kindergarten songs and games form an important part 
of every day's amusement, and under the guise of play an 
earnest effort is made to teach the brief creed ....*' to play 
fair, keep clean, and speak the truth. ' ' As the closing hours 
approach the children gather the toys together, bring them 
to the matrons, aid in putting them away, and then form a 
line or a ring and file out of the gate one by one. 

The parents are frequently visitors." 

Similar provision was made in New York City 
in 1889, through the initiative of two philan- 
thropic women, at 50th Street and the North 
Eiver; and again in 1891, at 99th Street and Sec- 
ond Avenue, under the auspices of the New York 
Society for Parks and Playgrounds. This play- 

^Ellen M. Tower, "Play Grounds and Sand Gardens," in 
World Wide, April 26, 1902. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 49 

ground covering sixteen city lots, an area equiv- 
alent to about an acre, in a tenement district, was 
supervised by a caretaker and equipped with 
''apparatus for exercise, play, and comfort," 
consisting of "swings, see-saws, small wagons, 
wheelbarrows, shovels, footballs, flags, drums, 
banners, and a sand pile." Three additional 
playgrounds were opened by this society.^ Two 
others were provided by settlements; one "under 
a wisteria vine in the back yard of the Nurses' 
Settlement on Henry Street in 1895"; the other, 
somewhat larger, in the yard of the Union Settle- 
ment on South 104th Street, in 1896. 

A sand garden type of playground was 
opened at Hull-House, Chicago, in 1894, on land 
donated by William Kent; in Philadelphia in 
1893, when two playgrounds were opened, but 
without supervision, by philanthropic people, and 
again, through the co-operation of several soci- 
eties including the Civic Club, the Culture Exten- 
sion League, the College Settlement, and the City 

swith the opening of the first playground by this society, 
the movement in New York City received much locaJ atten- 
tion. "On Saturday, November 21, 1891, twenty-seven promi- 
nent Jewish Rabbis spoke before their congregations on the 
need of playgrounds for children, and the next day one hun- 
dred clergymen preached on the same theme." A certain 
newspaper cast discredit upon the work of this society, how- 
ever, by claiming the movement as its own, endeavoring to 
make capital of it; and only three additional playgrounds 
were opened by it. Progress in New York was consequently 
slower than that in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia during 
the remainder of the last decade of the nineteenth century. 
A revival of city-wide interest began in 1897 with the ap- 
ptointment of Mayor Strong's committee. The details of this 
awakening of interest will be presented under the discussion 
of the "model playground" stage. 



50 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Park Association in 1893-94;* and in Providence, 
R. I., in 1894, under the auspices of the Union 
for Practical Progress and the Provident Free 
Kindergarten Association, after investigating 
what was done in Boston. 

These five cities (Boston, New York, Chicago, 
Providence, and Philadelphia) are the only ones 
in which authentic reports^ show provision for 
play to have been made during the period from 
1885 to 1895; and in each instance the sand gar- 

^Concerning the beginnings of permanent provision for 
play In Philadelphia, H. H. Buxton says: (Cf. E. B. Mere, 
American Playgrounds, p. 248) "The first meeting to con- 
sider the advis&.bility of establishing playgrounds for chil- 
dren in the crowded districts was held in the winter of 1893 
under the auspices of the City Park Association. The matter 
was kept before the public through the newspapers preceding 
a large meeting May 25, 1894. The City Park Association 
opened a playground that summer. 

"June 12, 1894, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
petitioned the board of education to keep open public school 
playgrounds during the summer months. A similar petition 
was communicated to the board in February of the following 
year by the people who had been advocating playgrounds. 
Further efforts were made to get the board of education to 
favor the movement. The favor was finally secured and four 
grounds were opened during July and August, 1895, as an 
experiment. The result was favorable so that for the year 1897 
the appropriation was increased from $1,000 to $3,000, thus 
insuring the growth and efficiency of the movement. In 
1898 twenty-five playgrounds were maintained by the board 
of education with the aid of the Civic Club." 

^According to statements published by the Playground and 
Recreation Association (Cf. The Playground, April, 1915, pp. 
1 ff.), provision of an unspecified kind was made in Brooklyn 
in 1889 by the Brooklyn Society for Parks and Playgrounds, 
"on land donated for the purpose" and entailing for an uncer- 
tain time as much as "from $2,000 to $3,000, including the 
salary of a chief supervisor"; and in Golden Gate Park, San 
Francisco, in 1898. This latter provision did not include 
supervision, and the length of time during which it was main- 
tained is not mentioned. After fruitless efforts, the writer 
is unable to verify either of these stated provisions. If they 
occurred, they must have been sporadic. The events in Brook- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 51 

den type was followed. This form of playground 
was also constructed in Pittsburgh in 1896; in 
Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Milwaukee in 1897 ; and 
in Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Denver in 1898. 
In the cities in which the movement began before 
1895, it passed during these years into the sec- 
ond stage of its development. 

An analysis of the structure and function of 
the play movement during the first stage of its 
development, as indicated by Table III, discloses 
the following characteristics: (1) provision only 
for children of pre-adolescent age; (2) main- 
tenance during the vacation period, or July and 
August; (3) operation for only a portion of the 
day in three of the five cities involved in the 
movement at that time; (4) equipment for out- 
door uses only, thus restricting service to that 
part of the year during which climatic conditions 
were favorable to outdoor play in sand and 
swings or upon see-saws; (5) location in densely 
populated sections of the city and on tenement 
courts, settlement or school yards, and parks in 
one city, while on vacant lots and school and set- 
tlement yards in the other four; (6) support by 
philanthropic societies and individuals, although 
using public land in four cities; (7) activities in- 
cluding both free and directed play, the latter 
being chiefly manual or folk and singing games 

lyn seem to have occurred after 1897, since the committee con- 
ducting the City Park Playground in that year stated, "So far 
as we are aware, the City Park Playground is the first one to 
have been established in Brooklyn." — Cf. Park Department 
Annual Report, 1897. 



52 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



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THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 53 

adapted from kindergarten programs; (8) 
motive primarily to keep tke children away from 
danger incident to play in the streets, by induct- 
ing them into activities designed to promote cer- 
tain behavior. 

A further analysis of the concept of the func- 
tion of the play movement at this stage, discloses 
three explanations for the provision of the sand 
gardens common to each of the five cities. The 
first and most frequently mentioned reason for 
providing sand gardens was the belief that the 
streets were unsuited to play, since they were 
narrow, hot in summer, unclean, poorly surfaced 
for games, and even dangerous to the health, life 
and morals of children. Attention was called to 
the many accidents that happened to children at 
play in the streets. Parents, consequently anxious 
for the safety of their children while playing in 
the streets, welcomed the sand gardens in settle- 
ment yard, tenement court, or school grounds. A 
second explanation was the statement that chil- 
dren were frequently annoying, both to their par- 
ents and their neighbors, in their unsupervised 
activities on the street. They were often noisy, 
destroying property, and injuring one another. 
Consequently the sand court was accepted as a 
way of escape from childish disturbances. A 
typical statement of these two explanations is the 
following : 

Both for the sake of the children and for the convenience 
and comfort of the community at large, such local pleasure 



54 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

grounds are essential. The children are thereby given re- 
sorts where they are safely engaged in their sports without 
danger to themselves or annoyance to others. The street is 
too often the only playground for the children of crowded 
neighborhoods throughout the entire metropolitan district. 
It is evident that such use of the street is inevitably attended 
by danger to life and limb, not to mention the equally seri- 
ous moral dangers, while it is a source of discomfort and 
annoyance to the entire population.^ 

The third explanation, a corollary of the first 
and second, was a sense of the maladjustment of 
childlife to the social situation in congested dis- 
tricts of the cities, evidences of which were seen 
in the delinquent behavior of children. A good 
statement of this view was made by the commit- 
tee on parks and playgrounds appointed by 
Mayor Strong of New York City. 

In the original plan of the City of New York, the children 
seem to have been forgotten .... leaving the children no 

other place to play but in the public streets A sense 

of hostility between children and the guardians of the public 
order had arisen, leading to the growth of a criminal class.'^ 

They (the sand gardens of Boston in 1887) are main- 
tained in the interest of hygiene and amusement. Though 
but a poor compensation for fields and flowers, they are full 
of enjoyment to the children who, without them, would have 
neither sand nor earth for dirt-pies and miniature forts.® 

This third explanation accounts in large 
measure for the fact that the earliest provisions 

^Annual Report Metropolitan Park Commission, Boston, 
1893, p. 67. 

''Annual Report New York Park Department, 1902, p. 12. 

^Annual Report of Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 
Association, 1887, p. 18. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 55 

for play in each of the five cities were made by- 
philanthropic societies and in connection with 
settlements. 

The residents of social settlements could count the human 
cost, as few others could, of the failure to provide oppor- 
tunities for wholesome play. They could not rest without 
doing something, however little, to meet the problem.® 

The adjustment attempted by the play move- 
ment during its first stage of development was 
related to the welfare of little children. This was 
concerned with removing them from the physical 
and moral dangers of the streets, with ridding 
the community of the annoyance which their 
behavior caused, and with the reduction of 
delinquency among them, and was based upon two 
assumptions that were not questioned: first, the 
right of little children to wholesome play, and 
second, the absence of opportunities for them to 
do anything else (since they could no longer assist 
their parents at work, industry having become 
specialized and removed from the home). 

B. The "model playground" stage, 1895- 
1900. While sand gardens were being established 
for the first time in Pittsburgh in 1896, in Brook- 
lyn, Baltimore, and Milwaukee in 1897, and in 
San Francisco, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Den- 
ver in 1898, the movement in Chicago, Philadel- 
phia, New York, Boston, and Providence passed 
into a second stage of development inaugurated 
by the ''model playground." This stage disclosed 

"Graham R. Taylor, Annals of American Academy of 
Political and Social Science, March, 1910, p. 306. 



56 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

for the first time, a criticism of the method of 
providing for play in urban communities and 
gave rise to a change in both the structure and 
the concept of the function of the movement. It 
was of short duration, experimental in nature, 
and added several permanent traits. The ''model 
playgrounds" of each of the five cities in ques- 
tion are herewith described. A comparative 
analysis is also made of their structure, of the 
concept of their function, and of their permanent 
contribution to the play movement in the United 
States. , ; i 

The first time that the term "model play- 
ground" was used seems to have been in connec- 
tion with a provision made by Hull House, in 
1894, on land donated for play use by Mr. William 
Kent. It contained about three-quarters of an 
acre, being 300 by 100 feet with an L approxi- 
mately 50 by 50 feet. It was open to both children 
and youths. The sand garden type of apparatus, 
sand pile, swings, building blocks, and giant 
stride, was provided for the children, while the 
boys of adolescent age played handball and indoor 
baseball. ^^ An experienced kindergartner and a 
policeman supervised the playground; the latter, 
detailed by the city, usually umpired the indoor 
baseball games. 

loindoor baseball was invented in Chicago as a substitute 
for regular practice by professional ball teams during in- 
clement weather. The ball used was a soft one about five 
inches in diameter, thus adapting the game to the small 
quarters of the average gymnasium. It has since been a great 
favorite on all boys' playgrounds of small size. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 57 

In 1896 a similar and somewhat larger play- 
ground was started under the auspices of the 
Northwestern University Settlement. A police 
officer also directed the team games of the older 
boys. His action, however, was voluntary and 
was performed with a view to its value in main- 
taining order in the neighborhood. In June, 1898, 
the University of Chicago opened the third play- 
ground of this type in Chicago.^^ It was about the 
same size as the one at Hull House and contained 
fifty dollars worth of apparatus. It was super- 
vised by a kindergartner and a policeman, the 
latter being wholly responsible after five o'clock. 
The grounds were kept open until nine o'clock. 
Children, youths, and adults attending this play- 
ground, for adults were encouraged by benches 
furnished for mothers, and games interesting the 
fathers on Sundays, made free use of a public 
bath house provided by the city and located across 
the street, and, during inclement weather, of an 
indoor gymnasium constructed at a cost of $9,000 
and forming a part of the plant of the settlement. 
The season during which this playground was 
open extended from June 25 to October 1. 

Simultaneous with the development of model 
playgrounds in Chicago, similar events charac- 

iiQther playgrounds, of the established sand-garden type, 
were opened about this time in Chicago. The West Side Dis- 
trict of Associated Charities provided the first, on the Wash- 
ington schoolyard in 1897. In 1898 the first public funds were 
appropriated by the city and amounted to $1,000. To this indi- 
viduals added $750. Six schoolyard playgrounds were added 
under the auspices of the committee of women's clubs. 



68 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

terized the movement in Philadelphia. The 
work was begun by the Culture Extension League 
organized in the spring of 1893, but which did 
not decide to establish a "model playground" 
until in the autumn of 1895. At that time, John 
Dickenson Square, an undeveloped small park of 
about three acres, was selected. The city au- 
thorities granted the league full control and 
appropriated $5,000 for its equipment. Its struc- 
ture contemplated an open circular area in the 
center which was flooded for skating in winter and 
used for team games during the remainder of the 
year. Surrounding this central area was a bi- 
cycle track fenced for safety, and outside of this 
equipment, tennis courts, swings, parallel bars, 
swinging rings, sand piles, and a music stand com- 
prised the chief facilities for active outdoor play. 
A promenade encircling the entire area so that 
''mothers may wheel baby carriages," rows of 
seats "to invite the visitor to rest," and "over- 
hanging shade trees" completed the outdoor 
equipment. For winter use two small buildings, 
pavilion type and steam heated, were placed on 
opposite sides of the play field. Two supervisors, 
a man and a woman, were in charge. This play- 
ground w^as opened in 1898,^^ and was the most 
completely equipped of its kind in the United 

i^Two sand gardens were opened, without supervision, in 
Philadelphia under the auspices of philanthropic individuals 
in 1893. In 1895 four school yards were equipped as sand 
gardens and opened by the board of education, the city coun- 
cil appropriating $1,000. Cf. chap, iii, footnote 4. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 59 

States at that time. Commenting upon it, Tsanoff 
said :^^ 

But what really counts is the use made of the playground, 
and the supervising care is to be intrusted to playground 
leaders. These teachers are to study the nature of the child 
and to so conduct the play as to guide the children and not 
unnecessarily restrain them. New games are to be invented, 
old ones revived, foreign ones introduced, and all necessary 
modifications made to answer the natural and growing taste 
of youth. A thorough co-operation with the home, the school, 
and the church is to be had for achieving the highest ends. 
The parents and the teachers in the neighborhood are to 
direct the children to the playground after school hours, and 
not let them drift into the streets as they do now. From the 
churches in the locality many are expected to come who will 
assist the teachers in playing with the children and exert 
their influence upon them. Thus the playground will become 
the center of delight, and of moral and social culture in the 
neighborhood. 

The movement for provision for play in Provi- 
dence, R. I., passed into the second stage of devel- 
opment in 1897. While sand gardens had been 
established three years earlier and ' ' after investi- 
gating what was done in Boston," playgrounds 
of the "model" type were not constructed until 
1897, after the public school authorities granted 
the use of several school yards and basement 
rooms in school houses. The Providence Free 
Kindergarten Association organized and main- 
tained the work. Miss Helen P. Howell was 
appointed superintendent and given a staff con- 
taining fourteen kindergarten and primary 

i^Stoyan Vasil Tsanoff, "Children's Playgrounds," Munici- 
pal Affairs, 1898, p. 578. 



eO THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

teachers. Of the nine grounds opened, from July 
7 to September 8, two were of the "model" type 
and provided for larger boys. One of these was 
equipped with gymnastic apparatus. This feature 
was probably copied from the Charlesbank Out- 
door Gymnasium of Boston, since the beginnings 
of provision in Providence were preceded by an 
investigation of the plan being followed in that 
city. And while the term "model" was not used 
locally to describe these two playgrounds for 
adolescent boys, the fact of two provisions such as 
these is evidence of the recognition of their place 
in the concept of the function of the movement as 
it was understood in Providence at that time. 

The first "model playground" in New York 
City became a fact on June 3, 1899, when the 
Outdoor Recreation League opened the Seward 
Park playground as a demonstration to the city. 
The events leading up to this experiment and the 
final completion of the park in its present form 
constitute perhaps the most dramatic chapter in 
the history of the play movement in the United 
States. They comprise, in large measure, the gen- 
eral anti-slum agitation, as Lee^* has pointed out 
and of which Riis^^ has written. The origin of 
this effort to improve the tenement districts of 
New York dates from 1857, when a legislative com- 
mittee inquired into their conditions. Nothing 

i^Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
p. 164. 

i5Cf. Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, and A Ten 
Years' War. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 61 

came of this inquiry and a new effort was begun 
in 1879. This resulted in the appointment of the 
Tenement House Commission in 1884. In 1887, 
an act of the legislature authorized the City of 
New York to spend $1,000,000 a year for the con- 
struction of ''small parks," but it was not until 
1894 that action was taken in the exercise of this 
power. That year, Mulberry Bend Park site was 
acquired. It contained two and one-half acres and 
cost $1,700,000. But while "the playground was 
assumed to be an essential part of the park," as 
stated by Mayor Hewitt, author of the law of 
1887 under which the site was obtained, the com- 
mission in charge were content with merely secur- 
ing a "breathing place" and no provision for play 
was made, nor has any been made there since that 
time. For a year, indeed, after the buildings were 
torn down, no further work was done and the 
unsightly spectacle of abandoned cellars partly 
filled with debris constituted the visible result of 
ten years of effort to improve the living condi- 
tions of the poor by providing public parks. 
When, in 1895, a wagon, parked in this open 
space as was the custom of the local teamsters, 
rolled into one of the cellars and injured some 
children playing about it, Jacob Riis was given the 
material for a newspaper story that aroused such 
a popular protest that the authorities were com- 
pelled to act. Mulberry Bend Park was then fin- 
ished, but it contained only grass plots, bounded 
by intersecting concrete walks and dotted with 



62 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

signs bearing the warning ' ' Keep off the Grass ! ' ' 
No space was allotted to children for play nor to 
youths for sports. Thus the first attempt in New 
York to provide facilities for the play of both 
children and youths ended in failure. Mulberry 
Bend Park was a ''breathing place" only. 

The second site to be acquired under the pro- 
vision of the law of 1887 was located in the angle 
between Division and Canal streets, one of the 
most densely populated sections of the east side. 
It is now Seward Park. It comprises two and 
five-eighths acres and cost $1,800,000 for grounds 
alone. At the time the land was secured it con- 
tained five- and six-story tenement houses. In 1894 
the commission recommended that these buildings 
be removed. Their recommendation became a law 
in 1895 and provided that the construction of the 
park should begin within three years. The 
grounds were not cleared, however, until 1898. 
Nine months more elapsed before the site was lev- 
eled suitable for play. By this time further work 
was prohibited by lack of public funds, although 
the plans of the Park Commission called for its 
ultimate development on lines similar to those 
followed in the construction of Mulberry Bend. 
The exact language used by the commission was : 

These plans contemplate a small park in the natural 
style with lawns and shrubbery covering as large an area as 
possible. 

The declaration aroused the Outdoor Recrea- 
tion League which had been organized in 1898 and 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 63 

comprised nineteen societies. It wished to avert 
a repetition of the blunder of Mulberry Bend by- 
demonstrating the value of a playground in this 
locality. At its own expense and guaranteeing to 
pay any costs that might accrue to the city 
through accidents involving damage suits, the 
league opened a ''model playground" on June 
3, 1899.^® Outdoor apparatus and instructors 
were provided. The experiment was a success. 
Thousands of contributions of from one to five 
cents each were made by the residents of the 
neighborhood toward its maintenance. Still the 
park commissioners hesitated revising their plans, 
but under pressure they consented to devote one- 
tenth of the area to a playgroimd. The friends of 
the children and youths of the neighborhood 
would not accept this decision and the commis- 
sioners finally yielded. Streets were closed, a 
stadium laid out, gymnasium and baths con- 
structed, and the spring of 1903 saw completed 
a public playground costing over $2,000,000. 

In addition to the provision of gymnastic 
apparatus and instructors, the experimental play- 
ground at Seward Park was characterized further 
by traits common to "model playgrounds," as 
indicated by the following : 

At Seward Park, a great attraction, always surrounded 
by a large crowd of grown men, is the kindergarten platform. 
One of the matters about which the league has taken special 

i^Cf. Joseph Lee, op. cit., pp. 164-167; The Playground, 
April, 1915, pp. 5-6; Chas. Zueblin, American Municipal Prog- 
ress, pp. 298-300; Jacob Riis, A Ten Years' War, pp. 169 ff. 



64 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

pains is to provide for the spectator, in order that fathers and 
mothers may come there, and that the playground may be a 
neighborhood afifair, and not merely a place for boys. This 
is done with an eye also to loafers of the district, who can 
thus be all watched at once.^^ 

Further significance of the ''model play- 
ground" at Seward Park is disclosed by com- 
paring its structure and function with contem- 
porary provisions in the city. In this way, its 
superior adaptation is strikingly shown. While 
as many as seventy provisions were listed by the 
school committee in 1899, none were as complete 
as that at Seward Park. Among them were 
thirty-one schoolyard playgrounds of the sand- 
garden type and under the administration of the 
school committee. Of these, ten were conducted 
as vacation schools in the forenoons, the control 
of vacation schools having been taken over from 
the Association for Improving the Condition of 
the Poor, in the previous year. Other forms of 
provision were : 

Five open air gymnasiums, five "kindergarten tents," 
sis recreation piers, three "sand gardens with kindergarten 
games," in Central park, seven roof gardens, ten swimming 
baths, and six "evening play centers. "^^ 

The Outdoor Recreation League taught the 
park commission how to construct the small 
parks,^^ as it demonstrated to the entire city a 
method of adjustment which comprised a more 
adequate provision for outdoor activities of both 

^Uoseph Lee, op. cit., p. 175. 
i8/&i(Z., p. 127. 
is/ftid., p. 175. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 65 

youths and children, and made a place for adults 
as spectators. 

In the last city to be studied in this section, 
Boston, three events must be considered: the 
Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium of 1889-91, the 
purchase of Franklin Field in 1894, and the North 
End Park playground opened in April of 1900. 
Of these three provisions, the first fulfilled the 
requirements of a model playground as far as 
equipment and supervision were concerned, but 
was limited somewhat in activities and was not 
used as an experimental agency. The second was 
without supervision except that which police alone 
gave to it, and was limited in both equipment and 
activities since it contained no facilities for lit- 
tle children and was devoted exclusively to team 
games. It may be compared to the Washington 
Park ''meadow," Chicago, described above in the 
discussion relative to the origin of the play move- 
ment. The third event, however, was a con- 
scious attempt to provide a model playground 
with respect to equipment, supervision, and activi- 
ties. It was conducted under the auspices of the 
Massachusetts Civic League. It contained three 
sections: one for the children of pre-adolescent 
age known as "the children's corner," and one 
each for the older girls and older boys. The struc- 
ture and the concept of its function are graphically 
described by the committee in charge as set forth 
in the annual report of the League for 1901.^" 

20Cf. Annual Report of Massachusetts Civic League, 1901. 



66 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

There is a wooden shelter with a bench for the mothers 
and two sand boxes, each six by twelve feet, four swings (to 
which we have recently added two teeter ladders), a nwrnber 
of carts, and material for kindergarten work, sewing and 
cutting out. 

For the older girls the teachers have introduced besides 
sewing, baseball, and a number of other lively games. 

Chiefly as a means of attracting the boys to the play- 
ground, we have had put in by the Naraganset Machine Co., 
at a cost of $150.00, the following gymnastic apparatus: two 
horizontal bars, three teeter ladders, two sets of flying rings, 
two trapezes; and at each end there is a slanting ladder and 
a pair of slanting poles. These last seem to be, if anything, 
the most used, a continuous procession of boys climbing up 
the lad«lers and sliding down the poles from early in the 
morning until dark. 

Further analysis of the structure and the con- 
cept of the function of this playground discloses 
the following facts distinguishing it. It sought 
to develop a spirit of loyalty in the youths 
through team games, emphasizing indoor baseball, 
while it aimed at being a neighborhood play- 
ground, by interesting the men in quoits and 
handball. The latter was very popular with 
the longshoremen who lived in the neighborhood. 
It attempted, furthermore, to determine what 
type of equipment was best suited to playground 
purposes, making use of traveling and swing- 
ing rings, climbing ladders and sliding poles, hori- 
zontal and parallel bars, among other pieces of 
apparatus. It attempted to classify games accord- 
ing to the ages of those attending the playground 
and organized inter-scholastic competition be- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 67 

tween teams representing the various grammar 
schools of the neighborhood. In administering 
this work, it required certificates of good stand- 
ing in deportment and scholarship of all com- 
petitors and awarded the prizes to the schools 
rather than to individuals. It encouraged class 
work on the gymnastic apparatus. It made use of 
quiet games and construction work including gar- 
dens, of which 400, of about two and one-half 
feet width and eight feet length, were placed along 
two of the sides of the playground. 

An analysis of the facts relative to the ' ' model 
playground ' ' stage of the movement as presented 
in Table IV discloses a change in both the struc- 
ture and the concept of the function of the move- 
ment. Provision is made for participation by 
youth as well as childhood, in each of the five 
cities, and either participation or spectatorship 
by adults is encouraged in all but one of the cities. 
Instructors with training are employed in each 
city, but activities are limited, as in the previous 
stage, to physical and manual or constructive in- 
terests. An effort seems to have been made in 
each city to discover what equipment, including 
both extent of area and apparatus, supervision, 
and activities were appropriate. As expressed 
by a contemporary observer and writer -/^ 

The ascertaining of precisely what supervision is neces- 
sary or desirable, and what apparatus and what methods are 
most effective, is the function of the model playgrounds of 
which a number exist. 

21 J. Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, p. 172. 



68 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



TABLE IV 

A COMPAEISON OF "MODEL PLAYGROUNDS" IN CHICAGO, PHILADSL- 

PHiA, Providence, New York, and Boston, Between 
1894 AND 1900* 



Characteristics — 



Dates of establishment 

Under philanthropic con- 
trol 

On private grounds.... 

On public school yards. 

On public park grounds 

Including sand gardens 

Containing provision for 
youths 

Encouraging attend- 
ance by men and 
women 

Open throughout the 
year 

With apparatus for 
children only 

With apparatus for 
youths and adults. . . . 

Connected with schools, 
either on grounds or 
in activities 

Having or using indoor 
equipment in summer 
or winter 

Supervised by trained 
instructors 

Assisted in supervision 
by special police, de- 
tailed 

Organizing team game 
competition, local or 
extra mural 

Providing for other 
than physical activi- 
ties, as construction 
work, gardening .... 



1894 



Cities 



Chi- Phila- Provi- 

cago delp'hla dence 



1895-98 



1897 

X 

e 

X 





New^ 
York 



1899 



Boston 



1900 



•Plans for a model playground were formulated by the 
Park Board of Louisville in 1899 although the playground in 
question was not completed until the following year and 
then partook of the nature of the "small park" stage of the 
structure and organization of the play movement. The plans 
called for a division of the grounds into two spaces, the one 
to contain a children's playground with wading pool and shel- 
ter house, the other a grass covered "play field" surrounded 
by a macadamized walk. While other "model playgrounds" 
were conducted upon public lands, this one had the distinction 
of having received financial support as well from public funds. 
For this reason it was more of an experiment than a demon- 
stration. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 69 

In carrying out the attempt to solve these prob- 
lems, four conclusions were reached for the first 
time in the evolution of the play movement : first, 
that play has an educational value as well as a 
recreational or amusement benefit upon the par- 
ticipant; second, that facilities for youths as 
well as children should be provided on the same 
site; third, that provision for the play of both 
children and youths should be made throughout 
the year, although the concept of indoor equipment 
was not developed ; and fourth, that provision for 
play must be made by public, not philanthropic 
resources. 

As stated by another contemporary writer:^" 

It (the model playground) means open spaces of suffi- 
cient area under the management of proper instructors, and 
equipped with all the means of attracting, invigorating, and 
guiding the youth of a community or neighborhood in their 
open air enjoyments during the whole year. 

The inquiry concerning the nature of super- 
vision, equipment, and activities requisite to ade- 
quate provision for play, constituted the first 
motive of the model playground. A second motive 
was that of awakening the interest of municipal 
officials and of demonstrating to them the form of 
provision for play best adapted to the needs of 
children and youths. This explanation is 
given in one of the Massachusetts Civic League 
reports -^^ 

22S. V. Tsanoff, "Children's Playgrounds," Municipal Af- 
fairs, 1898, pp. 578 f. 

^^Anniml Report of Massachusetts Civic League, 1901. 



70 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Our object is to get the city to introduce similar work in 
all the public playgrounds; our function being merely to 
carry the work through the experimental stage. 

In another report of the League, expression of 
both the first and second purposes given above is 
made as follows:^* 

In short, among city children, brought up as they have 
been without playgrounds, the forces of anarchy are stronger 
than the forces of order; such children are unable, accord- 
ingly, to use even such playgrounds as are provided unless 
some supervision is provided with them. To show what can 
be done by proper supervision in the way of making a play- 
ground useful to the children, and by so doing to bring about 
public supervision of all our city playgrounds, is the object of 
the work of this committee. 

C. The ''small park'' stage, 1900-5. A third 
stage in the evolution of the play movement in 
the United States is disclosed by the construction 
of ''small parks" and "squares" varying in area 
from three to ten acres, equipped with outdoor 
gymnastic apparatus, ball diamonds, athletic 
fields, comfort stations, and occasionally pavilions, 
and beautified by trees, shubbery and lawns after 
the manner of the structure of the municipal 
parks of their day. Any discussion of their struc- 
ture and function is incomplete if their relation 
to the origin and purpose of the city parks of the 
United States is not considered, since the "small 
parks" were adaptations of "park service" to 
the changed social situation in urban communities 
at the close of the nineteenth century under the 
initiative of the play movement. 

-^Annual Report of Massachusetts Civic League, 1901. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 71 

Municipal parks in the United States devel- 
oped from the town commons of Colonial times. 
While the primary purpose of the commons was 
pasturage, their recreational uses by the youths 
for team games, by the militia for the Octo- 
ber " training, "^^ and by the village folk for vari- 
ous gatherings on holidays, date from their found- 
ing. During the nineteenth century, the term 
' ' sport field ' ' came to describe that portion of the 
commons, which had then become city parks, in 
which team games were permitted. Gradually, 
however, as the congestion of population in the 
cities increased, the ratio of park area to num- 
bers of population became less and the traditional 
uses of the parks for play were more and more 
restricted. During the last quarter of the cen- 
tury, the refusal of all privilege of playing upon 
the "green," the only vestige of the commons, 
in the parks was threatened. The concept of the 
function of the park had changed. Horticulture 
had largely displaced ''sports" in the parks as 
the ''sport field" had succeeded the "pastures" of 
the commons. Trees and shubbery, flowers and 
lagoons, walks and carriage drives occupied an 
increasing proportion of park area. Placards, 
reading "Keep off the Grass," "protected" the 
lawns. The majority of the parks became 
"breathing places," where, as Jacob Riis wit- 
tingly remarked, * ' one could do little else. ' '^*^ This 

25Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
p. 123. 

26Jacob Riis, A Ten Years' War, supra. 



72 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

concept of '^park service" explains why most of 
the sand gardens and model playgrounds" were 
constructed upon private lands, such as settle- 
ment and mission chapel yards or vacant lots, or 
upon schoolyards, all of which were usually bar- 
ren and unattractive, instead of in the shady 
nooks or inviting ''meadows" of the parks. 

The experience gained in the conduct of model 
playgrounds, however, give rise both to a new con- 
cept of playground equipment and function on the 
one hand, and to a changed idea of "park service" 
upon the other : the ' ' small park idea. ' ' This plan 
of adjustment involved a correlation of park and 
playground structure and function. The former 
regained its traditional uses, while the latter was 
given aesthetic development. 

The prototype of the ''small park" was the 
Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium constructed in 
Boston in 1889-91. This was the first attempt in 
the United States in playground landscaping^* 
as it was the earliest conscious effort by a park 
board to provide primarily for play uses. A nar- 
row strip of unsightly river bank, ten acres in 
extent, and bordered on the land side by a slum 
section of the city containing two horse stables, a 
foundry, a factory, a saloon, a blacksmith-shop, a 
restaurant, a lumber-yard, the Suffolk jail, the 
Massachusetts General Hospital, and a few tene- 

2"Cf. the discussion of "sand garden" and "model play- 
ground" stages above, chap, iii, A, B. 

28 A. and L. Leiand, "Playground Technique and Playcraft," 
p. 59. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 73 

ments and cheap rooming houses, was made into a 
small park containing outdoor gymnasiums for 
men and women, respectively, at opposite ends, 
with trees, shrubbery and lawn between and about 
the spaces allotted to play. The fence enclosing 
the women's gymnasium was concealed by shub- 
bery. A decade passed, however, before this 
type of park, or playground, was copied in other 
cities, with the exception of Boone Park Play- 
ground, Louisville, Kentucky, which was designed 
by the same landscape architects, the Olmstead 
Brothers, in 1892, although New York had passed 
an enabling act permitting the purchase of land 
for park purposes two years prior to the construc- 
tion of the Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium. 
But nothing was done in New York toward taking 
advaptage of this act until 1895, because of lack 
of public opinion to support it. In the language 
of a member of the city administration in response 
to the inquiry of Jacob Eiis as to why the legis- 
lation had not been enforced, "No one down here 
seems to take any interest in it. ' '-^ This remark, 
however, furnished Riis with his text for the 
newspapers, and public opinion was soon formed 
upon the question. 

The "small parks" of New York originated 
in conjunction with the general anti-slum agita- 
tion in that city. Their development, however, 
was directed by the play movement, while they 
in turn added features of permanent value to 

29Jacob Riis, A Ten Years' War, supra. 



^ 



74 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

both the structure and the concept of the func- 
tion of the playground. As a result of the work 
of the Tenement House Commission in 1884, 
model tenements were constructed and sanitary 
regulations were introduced, but it was over a 
decade before it came to be realized that tene- 
ments must be destroyed, "not to make way for 
other tenements, even though they might be 
'models,' but for playgrounds "^° of the "small 
park" type. 

This adjustment was proposed in 1887, when 
the State Legislature authorized the expenditure 
of $1,000,000 a year for the acquirement of land 
for ' ' small parks ' ' in lower New York. But eight 
years passed before land for the first park was 
acquired. Two years were consumed in filing a 
map of the proposed park according to law, and 
eight, in condemning forty-one pieces of property. 
When in 1895, this park, Mulberry Bend, was 
finally finished, however, it contained no facilities 
for play as stated above.^^ The prevailing ideal 
of a city park, "a breathing place" wherein the 
urban dweller could "rest the eyes" by viewing 
"natural beauty" of trees and shrubbery, lawn 
and flowers, prevented the first "small park" in 
New York from being equipped for play uses. But 
before improvements had been made upon land 
•secured for the second one, the influence of the 
play movement was beginning to be felt and the 
concept of the "small park" was changed. The 

3"Cf. Charles Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, p. 298. 
3iCf. discussion of Mulberry Bend Park above. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 75 

** model playground" conducted by the Outdoor 
Recreation League upon the site for the second 
''small park" during the summer of 1899 proved 
so popular with the people of the neighborhood 
that the society was able to induce the Park De- 
partment to accept its plan of improvements which 
included extensive facilities for outdoor play. 
Similar improvements for other sites were also 
agreed to by the department as lands were 
acquired, so that by 1902, the construction of the 
first four "small parks," proposed or in process, 
was described in the annual report for that year 
as follows :^^ 

In Hamilton Fish Park, located at Houston, 
Stanton, and Sheriff Streets, containing 3.67 
acres, and in which, "through co-operation with 
the Department of Education, a playground, kin- 
dergarten, and (outdoor) gymnasium were oper- 
ated during the summeir" (of 1902), the pro- 
posed plan of development included, 

The construction of a running track, kindergarten 
grounds, the erection of an ornamental iron fence around the 
playgrounds and a pipe iron fence around the lawns, the 
asphalting of the plaza in front of the building, reshaping the 
grounds, spreading the garden mold, sodding, preparation of 
tree plots, remodeling of the public comfort station, the 
removal of existing connections with street water mains and 
properly capping the pipes, and the laying out of a gym- 
nasium and equipment of the same with parallel bars, swing- 
ing rings, vaulting horses, and other apparatus.^^ 

^^ Annual Report, Department of Parks, City of New York, 
1902, pp. 35-45. 



76 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

In De Witt Clinton Park, Fifty-second to 
Fifty-fourth Streets, Eleventh Avenue, and the 
Hudson River, containing 7.37 acres, and in 
which ' ' a tent was erected for nature study classes 
and a plot of ground was set aside for children's 
gardens" during the summer of 1902, since the 
buildings had only been removed during the 
spring of that year and no appropriations had yet 
been made for further improvements, the plan for 
development contemplated, 

The construction of playgrounds, gymnasiums, farm gar- 
dens, and a park building to contain comfort stations and 
shower baths, all to be constructed upon lines now recognized 
as producing the very best results for small parks in crowded 
sections of large cities, .... at an estimated cost of 
$200,000.3* 

In Thomas Jefferson Park, One-hundred and 
Eleventh, One-hundred and Fourteenth Streets, 
First Avenue, and East River, a site which had 
been acquired in 1900, and in which, during the 
summer of 1902, the park department had 
''erected a number of large tents, placed settees 
and other park fittings upon the grounds, laid out 
a baseball diamond, and opened the whole for tem- 
porary use during the heated term," the plan of 
development comprised. 

Laying out the lands in playgrounds, outdoor gym- 
nasiums, running tracks, walks and lawns, and a fine park 
building to contain shower baths and comfort stations. 

In William H. Seward Park, Canal, Hester, 
Suffolk, and Division Streets, a site which was 

^^Annual Report, Department of Parks, City of New York, 
1902, pp. 35-45. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 77 

acquired in 1897 and in which the memorable 
''model playground" was conducted by the Out- 
door Eecreation League in 1899, "the laying out 
of a children's playground, a gymnasium ground, 
a nine lap track, lawns, walks, and drainage was 
practically completed in 1902," while the most 
elaborate equipment up to that time was com- 
pleted in the following year, enabling the people 
to "celebrate May Day, 1903, in a public play- 
ground,"^^ a "play park" as well as a "small 
park." Speaking of the improvement of this 
park, while it was still in the process of comple- 
tion, the park department said : 

A splendid park building to contain bathing facilities, 
locker rooms, comfort stations, and other features will be 
begun early in 1903. 

In laying out this park the Department was confronted 
with the proposition of devoting a large part of the area to 
playground purposes and still preserving the usual park 
features. 

The pavilion in William H. Seward Park will be a struc- 
ture 138 feet long and 50 feet wide, the main floor consisting 
of a large recreation room or a playground. It will also 
serve as a shelter to view the games in the park, and will be 
separated from the street by offices and retiring rooms. The 
portion facing the park will be approached by a wide flight 
of steps and terraces. 

On the main floor will be built public comfort stations at 
either end, for men and women, and baths, twenty-one baths 
for women and thirty for men. The stalls to separate the 
baths will be of marble, the floors and walls will be tiled and 
special care will be given to proper ventilation. The water 
will descend at an angle from each shower bath and each 

35Charles Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, 1916, 
p. 300. 



78 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

bathroom will be divided into two compartments, providing a 
small dressing room. This type of bath is believed to be the 
most sanitary, and it will permit the greatest number of 
people to bathe at a given time with the least expense for 
attendants. 

The building will also contain a cellar, in which will be 
the boilers, hot-water tanks, coal vaults and storage-room for 
materials used in the park. 

The building is a light arcaded structure, constructed of 
brick with terra cotta arches resting on polished granite 
columns. The color is very light gray. It is arranged so that 
in the winter time, temporary sash enclosures may be erected, 
permitting the building to be used throughout the entire year. 

The (outdoor) gymnasium will be equipped with an iron 
pipe frame 80 feet long, 20 feet wide and 16 feet high, 
attached to which will be portions of the apparatus, such as 
climbing poles and ropes and inclined poles, chest bars, trav- 
eling rings and flying rings ; also with parallel bars, horizontal 
and peak ladders, captive tennis balls, merry-go-rounds or 
giant strides, basket balls and goals and other apparatus. On 
the playground smaller apparatus, such as the giant strides, 
teeter ladders, balance beams, captive tennis balls, large and 
small swings, sand courts, croquet sets, golf and shinner 
sticks and a round football will be installed. 

The detailed statement above of the proposed 
plan for the completion of William H. Seward 
Park, discloses the concept of the function and 
structure of the play movement during the ''small 
park" stage of its evolution. While relating to 
New York, it was typical of the developments in 
seven other cities also, notably Boston, Louisville, 
Chicago, St. Paul, Canandaigua and Rochester, 
N. Y., and Philadelphia. The more important 
events in the evolution of the play movement in 
these cities will now be cited as evidence that the 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 79 

''small park" concept of the structure and func- 
tion of both parks and playgrounds as developed 
in New York, was not peculiar to that city, 
although in some respects it was more highly 
elaborated and more expensively provided, but 
on the contrary, it was sufficiently general and 
permanent to represent a stage in the evolution of 
the play movement in the United States. 

In addition to Boone Park playground of 1892, 
the pioneer attempt to build a ''small park" in 
Louisville described above,'^ by duplicating in a 
measure the Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium of 
Boston of 1889-91, and as an outgrowth of the 
"model playground" planned for Louisville in 
1899, also described previously," three "small 
parks ' ' were completed shortly after 1900. Their 
names, dates of construction and plan of equip- 
ment are respectively as follows : 

Triangle Park, a modification of the "model 
playground" of the same name of 1899, was com- 
pleted in 1900 at a cost of approximately $55,000 
exclusive of its site. The equipment comprised a 
children's playground, a shelter house containing 
comfort stations and one centrally located play 
room, a wrought iron picket fence enclosing the 
grounds, a generous number of trees, shrubs 
planted about the edges of the park, and a wading 
pool. This was the first instance of the incor- 
poration of a wading pool in a "small park." 

ssEarlier in this chapter. 
37Consult footnote to Table IV, p. 68. 



80 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

A "park guard" acted as supervisor of the 
grounds. 

Central Park, modification of a public park of 
the traditional type which had been maintained 
for several years by the Park Department on the 
Dupont estate and that became the most elaborate 
of the Louisville "small parks," was begun in 
1900. The site contained fifteen acres formerly 
the grounds of a private residence. It was 
thickly covered- with an old grove of elm and other 
shade trees and was located in the residential 
district. On the one side dwelt a foreign popula- 
tion in what was popularly known as "the Cab- 
bage Patch," while on the other side were 
American families in many of the most expensive 
homes of the city. A referendum measure author- 
izing the expenditure of $90,000 toward improve- 
ments was approved by the voters in 1900. 
Although several years were consumed in estab- 
lishing its legality, the question was finally de- 
cided favorably by the supreme court of the 
State. Here, as in New York, a recreation league 
recently formed was instrumental in securing the 
success of the approval and defense of the ref- 
erendum measure. The plan proposed by the 
park department in 1900 for the construction of 
Central Park included: open air men's and 
women's gymnasiums, the former containing a 
running track; a children's playground with a 
sand court and a wading pool, a central plot for 
games and the usual swings and teeters; a field 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 81 

house containing comfort stations, and a shelter 
honse from which attractive pergolas extended 
on opposite sides, and many trees and shrubs 
enclosing lawns and plots encircled by graceful 
walks. 

Baxter Square, opened in 1900, was the third 
of the group completed during this stage of the 
movement, in Louisville. It contained two acres, 
was designed primarily for small children, and 
was supervised by a ''park guard." It was en- 
closed by an iron picket fence inside of which 
shrubbery and trees were planted and a macadam- 
ized walk was placed. The equipment comprised 
a wading pool, and a central grass plot with the 
usual apparatus for child play. 

One general provision made in connection with 
the ''small parks" in 1901, was the appointment 
of a supervisor of playgrounds assisted by a man 
and a woman instructor at each park. 

A society known as the Small Parks Associa- 
tion was formed in Philadelphia in 1888. The 
original object of this organization was similar 
to that of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Asso- 
ciation of London which was formed in 1884, be- 
cause of the familiarity of some of Philadelphia's 
leading women with the work of that association. 
Consequently "small parks" for play purposes 
were not contemplated at first, although this con- 
cept of their function was eventually accepted 
as a result of the influence of the development of 
the play movement upon the City Parks Associa- 



82 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

tion, successor to the Small Parks Association. 
The two events having the most direct influence 
were the equipment of Waterview Park in Ger- 
mantown for play purposes by the Twenty-second 
Ward Branch of the Civic Club in 1903, and, of 
Starr Garden, an unimproved city square, by the 
Starr Center in 1904. The latter enterprise was 
''the first step toward the Municipal Recreation 
Park, which now occupies that isite at Seventh and 
Lombard Streets."^* This ''small park" was not 
completed, however, until July 8, 1911, although 
the Playground Association supported a play- 
ground on this site during the interval. A Pub- 
lic Playgrounds Commission, created on May 27, 
1909, assumed control of all private playgrounds 
in October, 1910, "and let contracts for the con- 
struction of the First Municipal Recreation Build- 
ing at Starr Garden Park."^'' Thus, Philadel- 
phia lagged behind New York and Louisville but 
eventually surpassed them in elaborate indoor 
equipment in her "small parks." In the discus- 
sion of the succeeding stage in the evolution of 
the play movement, the development of these 
"recreation parks," as they have been known in 
Philadelphia, will be described. 

While the city of Boston did valuable pioneer- 
ing work in the development of the playground 
parks fully a decade before the play movement 
in other cities attained the "small park" stage, 

^'^Annual Report of the Board of Recreation of Philadel- 
phia. 1913, pp. 30-31. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 83 

as disclosed by the construction of the Charles- 
bank Outdoor Gymnasium in 1889-91, subsequent 
events related to and contemporary with those 
of the cities studied in this section necessitate 
consideration here in order to complete the sur- 
vey of this period herewith presented. These 
events comprise two groups of facts: first, those 
pertaining to the provision of other parks similar 
to that of Charlesbank and the work of the Metro- 
politan Park Commission appointed in 1892; and 
second, those involved in the development of pub- 
lic baths and indoor gymnasiums. 

The multiplication of the "small parks," 
'^ squares," and "open air gymnasiums" was 
made by the Board of Park Commissioners of 
the City in harmony with the recommendations 
made by the Metropolitan Park Commission (ap- 
pointed by the Governor of the State) in its first 
annual report, 1893, in which fourteen pages were 
devoted to a discussion of plans for the develop- 
ment of various sites. By 1905 there were several 
"small parks" of the "open air gymnasiums" 
type and of the children's playground type being 
administered by the Board of Park Commis- 
sioners of the city. 

The provision of shower baths and swimming 
pools, however, was made by a separate depart- 
ment of the city government called the Bath De- 
partment, organized in 1897. During 1903 this 
department maintained seven beach baths, one 
river bath, two swimming pools, nine floating 



84 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

baths, five gymnasiums, and the Dover Street bath 
house, an experimental building containing free 
baths for men and women throughout the year, 
the second of its kind in the United States (the 
first having been built in Milwaukee, in 1890). 
In 1899, work was begun on the first public indoor 
gymnasium, that of South Boston. 

While events relative to the development of 
''small parks',' in Chicago between 1900 and 1905 
do not disclose the construction of playgrounds 
that compare with the "small parks" of New 
York, Louisville, or Boston, they precipitated 
results that outdistanced the recreational attain- 
ments of those cities and ushered into the play 
movement another stage in its evolution.*" They 
must be considered then in connection with a dis- 
cussion of the achievement of other cities dur- 
ing this period because of their relation to those 
events and their contribution to subsequent devel- 
opments, both in Chicago and elsewhere. 

A Special Park Commission was appointed by 
Mayor Harrison in the autumn of 1899, as a result 
of the agitation for playgrounds of the "small 
park" type that had begun as an outgrowth of 
the publication of a report prepared by the 
Municipal Science Club the preceding spring. 
This commission was composed of nine aldermen 
and six private citizens. The objects of this com- 
mittee were three: (1) to establish municipal 
playgrounds in the congested sections of the city 

40Reference is here made to the "recreation center" stage 
developed in the subsequent section, D, this chapter. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 85 

as rapidly as finances permited; (2) to study the 
need of playgrounds in these districts and dis- 
close ways for meeting those needs; and (3) to 
study the three park boards of the city with a view 
to defining their relation to the play and recrea- 
tional problems of the community. 

In carrying out its first object, the commission 
established five playgrounds in 1900 and assumed 
charge of the numerous small parked areas within 
the city limits, such as triangles formed at street 
intersections and squares, since the large parks 
of the city were as now under the jurisdiction of 
the South, West, and Lincoln Park Boards, re- 
spectively. 

The annual appropriations for the work of 
this commission for the first five years were as 
foUows: 1900, $11,500; 1901, $10,000; 1902, $15,- 
000; 1903, $20,000; 1904, $20,000; 1905, $23,000." 

In seeking to achieve the second and third 
objects, the commission disclosed the inefficiency 
of recreational opportunities provided by the 
three park systems of that time because of the 
inaccessibility and insufficiency of the parked 
areas. It pointed out, that one-third of the total 
population of the city lived more than a mile from 
any of the large parks and could make slight 
use of play facilities should any be installed 
therein ; and, that those sections which were most 
deficient in park space were also those in which 
population was most congested. It was in those 

4iproc. of Playground Association of America, Vol II 
p. 256. 



86 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

neglected sections that tlie five municipal play- 
grounds of 1900 were located, and the ultimate 
object of their operation was to develop public 
opinion that would demand the creation of per- 
manent playgrounds of the "small park" type 
by the three park systems of the city. 

* ' The way in which one part of the city is favored at the 
expense of another," said a contemporary writer, ''may be 
best indicated by observing that the eleven wards which con- 
tain the bulk of the park and boulevard system include 1,814 
acres of park space, the population being about 425,000 ; this 
means 234 people to each acre of park space. The remaining 
twenty-three wards of the city with a population of over a 
million contain 228 acres of parks or 4,720 people to each acre 
of park space. This second division includes, of course, some 
sparsely settled districts, where the need for parks is not so 
great; if we were to compare, however, the eleven favored 
wards with eleven wards along the river, we should find the 
proportion even more startling. 

" It is in this large, neglected area that the municipal play- 
grounds have been established, which it is hoped are but the 
beginning of an extended movement in favor of small parks 
and possibly a central boulevard system connecting the river 
districts with the outer zone of boulevards and parks. ' '*^ 

That the Special Park Commission was suc- 
cessful in attaining its second and third objectives 
is indicated by the following admissions by the 
president of the largest park system, the first to 
respond to the recommendations made concern- 
ing the creation of additional playgrounds of the 
' * small park ' ' type. 

^-Charles Zueblin, "Municipal Playgrounds In Chicago," 
American Journal of Sociology, Sept., 1898, pp. 145-58; Cf. 
A. W. Beilfuss, "Municipal Playgrounds in Chicago," Proc. of 
Playground Association of America, Vol. II, pp. 255-63. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 87 

Each of these bodies (the three park boards in Chicago) 
has received suggestions as to small parks from the Special 
Park Commission, a city organization which has established 
(1905) nine small playgrounds for children and has studied 
general local park needs. 

The first step taken toward the present park expansion 
was to amend the Illinois law which permitted additions t© 
recreation area only contiguous to existing parks and boule- 
vards. Since 1869 (the date of the establishment of the three 
park boards of Chicago) new centers of population have de- 
veloped. The great stockyards district, with 100,000 people 
(1900) was without park facilities. The region of Engle- 
w^ood with more than 150,000; the great manufacturing dis- 
trict of the Calumet region, with a population of 100,000; 
and the congested river wards of the West and North Sides, 
were all without parks. 

When the statute had been amended by the Illinois Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1903, the people authorized Chicago Park 
Boards to spend $6,5'00/)0O for new parks. 

The South Park Commissioners were the first to aet.*^ 

Thus in Chicago, as in Louisville and the three 
eastern cities discussed above, the play move- 
ment attained the "small park" stage of struc- 
ture and the concept of its function, although the 
full significance of the evolution in idea both of 
park and playground service did not become ap- 
parent here until after 1905 when the first of the 
''small parks" were completed and open to use. 
While the park boards were slower to act than 
those of Boston, New York, or Louisville, they 
made excellent use of the experience gained by 
those cities and eclipsed their highest achieve- 
ments in play provision. This will be shown in 

^^Henry G. Foreman, "Chicago's New Park Service," 
Century Magazine, Feb., 1903, pp. 610-20. 



88 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



detail in the discussion of the "recreation center" 
stage of the play movement to follow; but it is 
sufficient for the establishment of the proposition 
discussed in this section to note that the ''small 
park" idea of provision for play dominated the 
play movement in Chicago between 1900 and 1905. 
Before entering upon a study of the motives 
that gave rise to the "small park" stage, there is 
further evidence of the nature and extent of the 
"small parks" to be seen in the developments in 
St. Paul in 1904, in Denver in 1908, and in Canan- 
daigua and Rochester, New York. The parks 
developed in the latter two cities were among the 
best examples of playground landscaping of the 
period. In the former two, while action was mod- 
eled after park developments in Louisville, the 
playgrounds themselves would not compare favor- 
ably with those of any of the cities studied. 

TABLE v 
A Study of the Concept of the Function of the Play Move- 
ment During the "Small Park" Stage of Its 
Development as Shown by Seven Cities 



Motives giving 
















rise to the 


New 


Louis- 


Phila- 


Bos- 


Chi- 


Canan- 


Roch- 


"small parks" 


York 


ville 


delphia 


ton 


cago 


daigua 


ester 


Greater utility 
















of parked 
















spaces 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


Increase in 
















parks and 
















playgrounds 
















in congested 
















sections of 
















cities 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 








Recognition of 
















municipal 
















support of 
















playgrounds . 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


Desire to beau- 
















t i f y p 1 a y - 
















grounds by 
















landscaping 
















or parking. . 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 89 

An analysis of Table V discloses at least four 
motives that were common to all of the cities in 
which ' ' small parks ' ' were provided, or proposed, 
during the period between 1900 and 1905 : (1) that 
public parks should be open to the play and recre- 
ational uses of the people; (2) that their number 
and area should be adequate and their location 
accessible to the homes of the city; (3) that play- 
grounds should be provided at least in part by 
municipal support and control; (4) that play- 
grounds should be attractive by virtue of their 
shade, lawns, flowers, as well as play apparatus, 
and thus stimulate the aesthetic appreciation of 
the public. 

The first three motives are disclosed by the 
following statement from the annual report of the 
park department of New York: 

The principal feature of park work in the boroughs of 
Manhattan and Richmond (congested areas) during the year 
of 1902 has been the development of playgrounds and kinder- 
gartens and the extension of the recreation areas in the larger 
parks. Playgrounds are being constructed in four new parks 
in crowded sections of the city, and an effort is being made 
to build these parks upon lines recognized as best accomplish- 
ing the purposes for which the lands were acquired. 

The fourth motive is expressed by contem- 
porary observers and writers, such as the follow- 
ing three statements from advocates, landscape 
architects, or playground administrators : 

To my mind the whole playground conception has here- 
tofore been wrong. We have taken as our ideal a bare city 
lot equipped with paraphernalia for children 's exercise. The 
truer ideal would be an acre or so of natural looking country, 



90 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



which we should create if necessary, with "the flowers of 
the fields and blossoms of the woods" and "pleasant waters" 
— a chance for the city child to know the delights of a 
real outdoors, of a place where in the night there might be 
fairies, as there never would be in the ordinary city play- 
ground.** 

The time is rapidly coming when we will no longer con- 
sent to accept as a suitable place for a playground, a ground 
that is not beautiful as well as fully equipped with apparatus 
and playground material.*'' 

It had never occurred to us that any defense for beauti- 
fying the playground was necessary. We had always sup- 
posed that the reason why many of them were not beautiful 
was on account of lack of money rather than absence of de- 
sire The first playground we ever saw was Columbus 

Avenue, Boston, which at that time was a desolate waste of 
cinders without a tree or speck of green upon it. Our impres- 
sion was that if we should be obliged to play there it would 
have to be under compulsion.*® 



TABLE VI 

An Analysis of the Structure and Organization or the 

"Smajll Park" Stage of the Play Movement 

AS Shown by the Seven Cities Studied 



Features added 
















to sand garden 


New 


Louis- 


Phila- 


Bos- 


Chi- 


Canan- 


Roch- 


stage. 1900-05 


York ^ 


ville 


delphia 


ton 


cago 


daigua 


ester 


An open space 
















for athletics.- 


X 


X 


X 


X 





X 


X 


A "field" house 
















or "shelter" . . 


X 


.X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


Aesthetic treat- 
















ment of site. 


X 


X 


X 


X 





X 


X 


A wading pool. 





X 

















Shower baths. . 


X 








X 


. 








Area increased. 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


X 


.\ 



^^Charles Mulford Robinson, "Landscape Gardening for 
Playgrounds," paper read at second annual meeting of Play- 
ground Association of America. 

*5George D. Chamberlain, address at second annual meet- 
ing of Playground Association of America. 

*8A. and L. Leland, Playground Technique and Playcraft, 
Doubleday Page and Co., New York, 1913, p. 54. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 91 

D. The '' recreation center' ' stage, 1905-12. 
The ' ^ recreation centers ' ' in the public parks and 
the ''social centers" in the schools were the first 
attempts in the evolution of the play movement 
to make provision for all ages of people through- 
out the year, in indoor as well as outdoor activ- 
ities. The former type of provision developed 
the ''field house"; the latter, "the wider use of 
the school plant." Incidentally each involved 
provision for more varied forms of play than was 
made in either of the three preceding stages of 
the movement. To the manual play of the "sand 
gardens" and the physical and manual activities 
of the "model playgrounds" were added three 
other types, namely, (1) the social, including 
convivial expressions of the gregarious instinct, 
such as parties, dances, clubs; (2) the aesthetic, 
including story telling, dramatics, both junior and 
senior, choral and instrumental musical societies 
and programs; and (3) the civic, comprising 
lectures on public questions, health exhibits, and 
the holding of elections in some of the recreation 
centers, especially the "social centers" in the 
public schools. 

"With the wider field of activities came a more 
adequate equipment. In Chicago, the "small 
park" agitation resulted in the evolution of the 
most complete type of physical structure, com- 
prising areas of 10 to 60 acres, fully equipped 
with outdoor gymnasiums after the Charlesbank 
plan, athletic fields after the Franklin field type. 



92 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

swimming pools of a new design, and the most 
elaborate form of fieldhouse of the period con- 
taining indoor gymnasiums for both men and 
women, an assembly hall, two to four clubrooms, 
a lunchroom, and a branch of the public library. 
In Los Angeles, somewhat less elaborate facili- 
ties were constructed, but these contained all of 
the essential features of the Chicago plan. Here 
the word "clubhouse" was used to describe the 
building. In Boston, the "gymnasium" was 
developed in some instances; in others, the "pub- 
lic baths" in place of the "fieldhouse or club- 
house. ' ' In Rochester, the public school plant was 
utilized, slight alterations of a more or less tem- 
porary nature being made at first. Later, as the 
idea gained in favor, a change in the architecture 
of school buildings throughout the United States 
resulted; assembly halls, indoor gymnasiums, 
swimming pools, clubrooms, and kitchens being 
added to the traditional plan. Chicago, Los 
Angeles, Boston, and Rochester each developed a 
distinct method of providing "recreation cen- 
ters." They were the four pioneering cities of 
the period. 

The "recreation center" stage, then, was 
essentially a turning point in the play movement. 
Its scheme of equipment, activities, supervision, 
and support was a culmination of preceding 
stages and fundamental to all later develop- 
ments. It was a more accurate answer to the 
questions that gave rise to "model playgrounds," 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 93 

namely, what supervision, equipment, activities 
should the playground comprise, as it was the 
matrix out of which the present concept of the 
function of ''community recreation" evolved. 
While, in a measure, each of the two preceding 
stages had served a dual purpose, completing the 
previous stages and opening the way for a sub- 
sequent one, this stage discharged that function 
more completely than any before or since. It was 
the adolescent period in the play movement, giv- 
ing rise to the features of mature life that have 
since characterized it, as the "sand gardens" 
represented the period of infancy, and the 
"model playgrounds" and "small parks" the 
periods, respectively, of early and later child- 
hood. The motives giving rise to the "recreation 
centers," and the forms of expression which 
arose in the various cities will now be analyzed.*^ 

The most notable expression of the "recrea- 
tion center idea" was that completed by the 
South Park Commissioners, Chicago, during the 
summer of 1905, when ten "play parks" as they 
were first called were opened to the public. The 
story of the origin and nature of these parks has 
been told many times in print. It was character- 
ized at the time, by President Roosevelt, as the 
greatest civic achievement by any municipality 
in America. Briefly the principal facts are as 
follows : The South Park District was created by 
acts of the State Legislature of Illinois, approved 

«See Table VI. 



"X. 



94 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

February 24, and April 16, 1869. These acts 
authorized the organization of a board of park 
commissioners to consist of five members, each 
to serve five years, the term of one member expir- 
ing each year, and to be appointed by the circuit 
judges of Cook County, in which the district is 
located. The original purpose of the board was 
to acquire, develop, and maintain parks and boul- 
evards. In order to perform this work, the board 
was made a separate and distinct municipal cor- 
poration, independent of the City of Chicago in 
every respect, and empowered to exercise exclu- 
sive control of all lands acquired for parks and 
boulevards, to levy taxes for their construction 
and maintenance, to create and maintain its own 
police force, and to enact ordinances and other 
regulations for the control of the public while 
using its facilities. By virtue of their unique 
organization, the South Park Commissioners 
have, from the first, enjoyed a reputation of free- 
dom from political bias and corruption in the 
conduct of their office. The South Park District 
has contained, from the first, 92.6 square miles. 
Its population in 1905 was nearly three-quarters 
of a million. A $5,000,000 bond issue, approved 
by the voters of the district in 1903, made pos- 
sible the inauguration of the ''new park service" 
which gave forth the "play parks" of 1905. The 
motives giving rise to their construction were 
well stated by Mr. Henry G. Foreman, then Pres- 
ident of the Board, in describing the action of 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 95 

the Commissioners after the agitation of the spe- 
cial park commission of Chicago for "small 
parks" had resulted in the approval of a bond 
issued for small parks, as follows : 

The South Park Commissioners were the first to act. In 
the crowded quarters they found hordes of dirty and poorly 
clothed children swarming in the public ways, their play- 
ground. They found mothers with no green spot near by to 
refresh them and their little ones. They found young rnen 
and women in many localities with no neighborhood centers 
where they could meet and enjoy beautiful uplifting pastimes. 
They found men weary from hard labor, with few places for 
beneficial recreation to break the monotony of their lives, 
but with avenues of disastrous amusements on every side. 

Local stagnation blighted many districts. There was 
little or no neighborhood patriotism while the public schools 
educated children only ; they were open certain hours five days 
to the week and about nine months to the year. The churches 
for the most part were in service one day in the seven ; they 
were tireless in their religious work, but were unable to pro- 
vide facilities for physical culture. 

The commission had started out to provide simple parks; 
but the conditions showed that such places, to be serviceable 
in a city where seventy per cent of the people live in con- 
tracted quarters, must be more than breathing spaces with 
grass, flowers, trees, and perhaps a pond and a fountain. 
They must afford gymnasiums, libraries, baths, refectories, 
clubrooms, and halls for meetings and theatricals. They must 
be useful day and evening, summer and winter. The public 
must receive a continuous and ample return upon its invest- 
ment : daily dividends in happiness, health and progTess. 

Thus the idea of the fieldhouse or neighborhood-center 
building had its birth. 

In the quotation above, three distinct aims are 
mentioned: (1) that of a continuous service to 



96 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the public, since the facilities must be open day 
and evening, summer and winter; (2) a contribu- 
tion to the development of cleanliness, and a 
sense of order and beauty in life, as typified by 
the parked playground and the public baths; (3) 
a supplementation of the school, the church, and 
other social agencies by facilities for the promo- 
tion of health, sociability, morality, and the en- 
joyment of art. 

The equipment of each of the ten new parks 
was two-fold: an indoor and an outdoor plant. 
The indoor plant, the "fieldhouse," contained an 
assembly hall with stage and cloak rooms, a 
men's and a women's indoor gymnasiums with 
locker rooms, shower baths and toilets, two to 
four clubrooms, a refectory, and a branch of the 
public library. The outdoor plant contained: (1) 
a children's playground, for boys and girls under 
ten years of age, equipped with swings, teeter- 
totters, giant strides, wading pool, sand bin, lawn 
and flowers, a free game space, all surrounded by 
an iron fence concealed by shrubbery; (2) a 
men's gymnasium equipped with the regular 
gymnastic apparatus, an iron pipe frame sup- 
porting traveling rings, climbing ladders, poles, 
and slanting beams; pits for jumping, shot put- 
ting, and pole vaulting; a cinder running track; 
both an indoor-ball diamond and a basket-ball 
court, and quoits; (3) a women's outdoor gym- 
nasium with swings, an iron pipe frame similar 
to that of the men, an indoor-ball diamond, jump- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 97 

ing standards, tennis courts, and quoits. Both 
the gymnasiums were surrounded with iron 
picket fences concealed by shrubbery. Each gym- 
nasium also was provided with shade trees and 
lawns. (4) In front of each fieldhouse was placed 
a music court, a grove of elms, in which a band 
stand was erected. The front platform of the 
fieldhouse also provided a stage for the presenta- 
tion of outdoor dramatics, musical, and gym- 
nastic exhibitions. (5) In the center of each park 
was located the ''play field," or ''ball field," con- 
taining one or more baseball diamonds, and foot- 
ball, soccer, and hockey fields in season. This was 
flooded in winter and skating provided, toboggans 
being included the first years, but afterward 
removed because of accidents resulting from their 
use. (6) Encircling both the ball field and the 
whole area of each park was an iron fence and 
rows of trees, banked by shrubbery and sur- 
rounded by lawn. (7) The paths in each park and 
the playing surfaces of the outdoor gymnasiums 
and ball field were surfaced with "torpedo sand," 
that is, a layer of coarse sand one stone deep 
over a bedding of clay. In later years this was 
oiled annually and was thereby never dusty nor 
muddy. Hemp rope was used in the swings. 
Croquet, and tennis, and picnicing were per- 
mitted on the lawns, when tennis courts were not 
provided elsewhere. (8) Nine of the parks con- 
tained an outdoor swimming pool of approxi- 



98 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

mately 85x150 feet with lockers, dressing booths, 
shower bath, spring boards, and diving stands. 
The supervision of the recreation centers was 
somewhat inadequate at first; trained play lead- 
ers being provided only in the gymnasiums, an 
indoor instructor in each indoor gymnasium who 
also supervised the outdoor athletic equipment 
for his sex during the summer. This involved 
all-year employment for the instructors and made 
possible a closer attachment between them and 
their neighborhoods. But no direction was given, 
during the first five years, to the assembly hall 
and clubroom activities. Permits to use same 
were issued free upon written application by the 
South Park Office. In 1909, and 1910, this condi- 
tion was corrected by the appointment of ' ' Field- 
house Directors," in each of the parks, to be 
''head, promoter, and guide to all activities" in 
the assembly hall and clubrooms. In 1912, the 
word "Fieldhouse" was dropped and the title 
became simply ''Director," of the park. From 
that time on, he was responsible for all activities, 
for the cleanliness and care of the physical plant, 
for the discipline of both patrons and employees 
(with exception of the police, the engineer, and 
the ground foreman who cared for the lawn, 
shrubs, and trees), and for everything that 
affected the good name of the park. This was the 
beginning of the process of decentralization of 
administration that led, in 1915, to the adoption 
of "neighborhood organization" as an integral 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 99 

part of the scheme of support and control of the 
uses made of the parks, and that gave rise to the 
sixth stage in the evolution of the play movement 
in Chicago. The complete staff of employees 
located at each small park, after 1910, comprised 
the following: one director; two gymnasium in- 
structors, a man and a woman; two assistant 
gymnasium instructors, first throughout the year, 
but, after '1912, only during the school vacation 
period; one head fieldhouse attendant; two locker 
and shower room attendants for the men's gym- 
nasium, and two women attendants for the 
women's gymnasium; two additional men's and 
two additional women's attendants during the 
summer while the swimming pool was in opera- 
tion; two janitors (men) throughout the year, 
one additional during the swimming pool season; 
two librarians in charge of the branch library 
(paid by the public library) ; one attendant (man) 
in the children's playground (to keep it clean and 
tidy, not to supervise, that being done by one of 
the instructors) ; one engineer and one fireman 
(employed throughout the year on account of the 
necessity of heating water for the shower baths 
in summer as well as heating the building in 
winter) ; three or four lifeguards while the swim- 
ming pools were operated; two policemen, work- 
ing in shifts with both on duty during the 
afternoons; one ground foreman and two to four 
laborers as occasion required. In addition to the 
above staff there were regular visits at each park 



100 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

by the landscape gardener, the electricians, the 
laundry wagon drivers (the South Parks maintain 
their own laundry, washing all towels, bathing 
suits, and attendants' and janitors' uniforms), 
the supply wagon driver, the carpenter, and the 
"gymnasium rigger" (as was his title) or man to 
repair gymnastic apparatus. 

The cost of each of these recreation centers 
varied from a quarter to a half million dollars. 
Armour square, ten acres in area, cost $50,000 
for land, $94,000 for heldhouse and swimming 
pool, and $76,000 for other equipment; a total of 
$220,000. Maintenance of this park was $30,000 
annually. Some of the parks involved a greater 
expense both in the original construction and the 
annual maintenance. Sherman park required 
$50,000 annually for maintenance. Thus the 
South Parks demonstrated expenditure for pub- 
lic recreation. 

The activities in which the public engaged in 
the use of the South Park recreation centers were 
of five groups: (1) The physical, involving indoor 
gymnasium classes for children, youths and 
adults from October 1 to May 1, games, appa- 
ratus and track and field events during the out- 
door season, and inter-park athletic competition 
in basket-ball, indoor baseball, playground ball, 
volley-ball, and track meets in their respective 
seasons. Many baseball teams, organized outside 
the parks, reserved the use of the ball diamonds 
on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, playing 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 101 

under the supervision of the police. (2) The 
manual, connoting sand modeling, kite making, 
building with blocks. (3) The social, comprising 
dances, parties, banquets, and club meetings in 
the halls and clubrooms. (4) The aesthetic, in- 
cluding theatricals, choral and orchestral pro- 
grams, artist recitals and concerts in vocal and 
instrumental music and readings, and folk and 
interpretive dancing on exhibition programs, (5) 
The civic, or citizenship, activities including lec- 
tures on public questions, mass meetings, meet- 
ings of local improvement associations, child 
welfare and similar exhibits, and meetings of 
women's clubs. The only events prohibited were 
religious meetings of a sectarian character, polit- 
ical meetings of a partisan nature, advertising, 
charging admission to entertainments or social 
gatherings, soliciting funds for benevolent or 
charitable purposes, playing cards, betting, or 
smoking while using the facilities. These restric- 
tions were imposed both to elevate the moral 
standards of those using the parks, and to shield 
the public from innumerable schemes of exploita- 
tion; in short, to emphasize wholesome play, 
or moral '' activity for its own sake." 

The concept dominating the organization of 
activities in the South Park ' ' recreation centers, ' ' 
first in the gymnasiums and later in the entire 
park as direction was added to the uses made of 
assembly hall and clubrooms, was that of active 
recreation rather than passive amusement; 



102 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

recreation ''of the people and by the people" as 
well as "for the people," to employ a familiar 
phrase. A clear expression of this point of view 
was given by Mr. E. B. DeGroot,** General 
Director of Fieldhouses and Playgrounds, in one 
of the annual reports of the commissioners. 

Young folks of this day have substituted passive pleasure 
for the active play and recreation of the corresponding period 
of youth of their parents. ''In the old days" most of the 
recreation pursuits called for putting hands, head, and heart 
and imagination into the effort which gave pleasure. Now 
young folks merely put the hand into the pocket for the 
nickel, dime, or greater sum, which buys pleasure. One was 
wholesome, active recreation, rich in expression; the other is 
nearly always passive recreation and is not only lacking in 
opportunity for self-expression, but is socially and econom- 
ically expensive 

We need the public playground and recreation center to 
restore to children and young folks facilities, progTams, tra- 
ditions, and opportunities for the pursuit of active recreation 
as opposed to passive pleasure. The "high cost of living" 
is not more real and alarming than the high cost of pleasure. 
The secondary effects in the latter case are often more serious 
than are indicated in the mere investment of money by the 
pleasure seeker. 

Next to the South Park Commissioners, Chi- 
cago, in the extent of provision made was the 
work of the Board of West Chicago Park Com- 
missioners created in 1869 by the same acts of 
the State Legislature that authorized the South 
Parks. It was distinguished from the latter, how- 
ever, by two facts. It numbered seven members 
instead of five, who were appointed by the gov- 

^^Annual Report of South Park Commissioners for 1910. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 103 

ernor of the State, for a term of four years each. 
But, like the South Parks, it was an independent 
municipality having its own policing, lighting, 
taxation, and maintenance systems, and the 
authority to fix ordinances and regulations for 
the control of those using its facilities. The West 
Chicago Park District is co-extensive with that 
portion of the city west of the north and south 
branches of the Chicago river. By the accident of 
fortune, the source of revenue for the mainte- 
nance of parks and playgrounds by this district 
has been less productive than that of the South 
Parks because of the fact that the "loop district" 
of the city lies wholly within South Park terri- 
tory; hence, an inequitable apportionment of the 
taxes went to the respective park commissioners. 
This fact was largely responsible for the second 
place which the West Chicago Parks have held in 
the provision of facilities in comparison with that 
of the South Parks. 

On May 18, 1905, the voters of this district 
approved a $1,000,000 bond issue for the con- 
struction and maintenance of the first three 
"recreation centers": the B. A. Eckhart Park 
containing 8.12 acres, opened August 1, 1908; the 
Stanford Park, 2.89 acres, opened February 22, 
1910; and the Dvorack Park, 3.85 acres, opened 
June 25, 1908. Holstein Park, the fourth recrea- 
tion center, was completed in June, 1912. In 
equipment, supervision, and field of activities, 
these parks were essentially duplicates of those 



104 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



of the South Park Commissioners, providing 
facilities for indoor and outdoor play and recrea- 
tion by all ages of people every day in the year, 
and thus conforming to the concept of the "rec- 
reation center" stage. 

Second only to the South Parks of Chicago, 
was the pioneering work of Los Angeles in the 
development of its ''recreative centers." By 
ordinance of the city council, in September, 1904, 
a board of playground commissioners was 
created. This board was composed of five mem- 
bers, of whom two were women, appointed by the 
mayor, and who served without compensation. 
During the first years of its history, this board 
expended $137,000 for recreation purposes. In 
1912 it became a department of the city govern- 
ment. 

The first recreation center was opened in 
June, 1905. By 1912 five others had been added." 
In addition to these all-year provisions, there 
were nine vacation playgrounds and one summer 
camp. The distinctive features of provisions for 



1912: 



^^The following is a table of Los Angeles Playgrounds in 



Name 


How acquired 


Area 


Cost 


Opened 


violet Street. .. 


Purchased 


? 02 


S10..?72.'in 


June 


10, 1905 


Echo Park 


Granted bv Parks 


4.70 


11,611.00 


May 


18, 1907 


Solano Avenue. 


Granted by 












Council 


O.GO 


113.00 


May 


14,1907 


Recreation 












Center 


Purchased 


0.55 


29,117.00 


Oct. 


10, 1908 


Slausen Avenue 


Granted bv 












Water Dept 


1.71 


17,814.00 


Mar. 


12, 1910 


Hazard 


Granted by 












Council 


10.98 


11, 409. .3.5 


Apr. 


29, 1911 


Downey 


Granted by 












Council 


.3.00 


7,649.59 


June 


24. 1911 



THE STAGES OE THE PLAY MOVEMENT 105 

play in Los Angeles during these seven years 
were identical with those of Chicago ; facilities for 
all ages, open every day in the year, and afford- 
ing opportunity for participation in play of a 
physical, manual, social, aesthetic, and civic 
nature. 

The playgrounds of Los Angeles, although officially 
bearing the title, are more than the name implies. In reality, 
they combine the usual playground features with forms of 
social activity most often found at the settlement house. 
Hence, '^ recreative centers" will be found the more fitting 
term.®° 

The equipment of each recreative center in- 
volved a division of the area into three spaces: 
one for the little children, one for boys and men, 
and one for girls and women. The apparatus in 
the children's playground consisted of sand bins, 
swings, teeters, and blocks ; that in the girls ' sec- 
tion, of swings, see-saws, maypoles, and basket- 
ball, volley-ball, croquet, and tennis courts; for 
the boys, facilities for baseball, handball, basket- 
ball, track and field, and the usual playground ap- 
paratus frame. Under the apparatus frame, tan 
bark was used for surfacing the grounds. Shower 
baths were usually provided for both the boys ' and 
girls' sections, and a "summer house" in connec- 
tion with the children's section "for the mothers 
.... where they may sit and read or watch 
the children at play." Another unique feature 
of the outdoor equipment was the gardens; 

^"Bessie D. Stoddart, "Recreative Centers of Los Angeles," 
The Annals, March, 1910, p. 427. 



lOG THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

forty-five in the first recreative center. The in- 
door equipment consisted of a "clubhouse" or 
''fieldhouse," generally of the bungalow type of 
architecture, containing an assembly hall with 
stage, clubrooms, storerooms, a kitchen well sup- 
plied with dishes, and a home for the director of 
the center, located in one corner of the play- 
ground. The most elaborate indoor equipment 
was that provided at Recreation Center play- 
ground. The motives prompting its erection and 
the nature of the building are described by Miss 
Stoddart:'' 

The Playground Commission early felt that the munici- 
pality should afford special recreational facilities for the 
working young men and young women and the adult popula- 
tion. It was determined to build what was termed a recrea- 
tion center, to distinguish it from the playgrounds proper, 
as affording better means for indoor play, a house that should 
offer something of what the social settlement or the Y. M. 
C. A. building furnishes. A corner lot, 200 by 120 feet to 
an alley, located in a central industrial district, was secured, 
costing less than $9,000. Of this amount, $1,000 was sub- 
scribed by two industrial companies. Here was built a hand- 
some brick-and-plaster structure of the Spanish Renaissance 

style so prevalent in Southern California 

The main feature of the building is a fully equipped 
gymnasium, measuring 44 by 74 feet, with windows on three 
sides. On the fourth side a large stage opens, for the gym- 
nasium is also meant for use as an auditorium. Ordinarily 
the stage is closed off with rolling doors and is used as a 
clubroom. The gymnasium is two stories in height, a gallery 
furnished with a running track being located at the second 
story. 

siBessie D. Stoddart, supra. 



T3.E STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 107 

Other features of the building are, briefly, as follows: 
Ten marble shower baths, modern loeker-room, storeroom 
and furnace-room, two model bowling alleys, district nurse's 
headquarters, kitchen, two clubrooms, library; physical in- 
structor's office, where measurements are taken and records 
kept; trellised roof -garden, which commands a magnificent 
panorama of the city and mountains and is equipped with 
sand box and building blocks for children, and with electric 
lighting for evening socials; and last, but a very important 
factor, a pleasant five-room apartment for the manager. For 
here again the home rounds out the work of the center and 
establishes helpful relationships. 

From the first, the direction of all activities 
was given by trained supervisors. In 1912 the 
staff of the department included one superin- 
tendent, one secretary, two supervisors, twelve 
directors, twenty vacation directors, ten substi- 
tute instructors, one manager of Eecreation 
Center, one accompanist, two mechanics, one gar- 
dener, seven caretakers, and two vacation care- 
takers. Usually each all-year playground was 
provided with two directors, a man and a woman, 
throughout the year and two additional directors, 
a man and a woman again, during the vacation 
months. 

The field of activities contained active and 
passive play. The children were divided into 
four groups according to age and ability, namely, 
the kindergartners, juniors, intermediates, and 
seniors. The directors gave their personal atten- 
tion to each group during a certain portion of 
the day, keeping watch of all visiting the grounds. 
Thus organized and definite play was encouraged. 



108 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The nature of the play of each group is indicated 
by the following description r'" 

Active plays and games, alternating with quiet games 
and certain forms of. handicraft work, occupy the time of the 
children. The small boys and girls play kindergarten games, 
use the simple apparatus, and enjoy to the fullest extent 
the wading pool, the sand courts, and building blocks. Story 
telling, paper cutting, and scrapbook work also interest them. 

The older girls are interested to a certain extent in the 
play apparatus, but most of their time is occupied with field 
games, such as croquet, tennis, volley-ball, basket-ball, and 
playground ball. Each year the game of playground ball is 
becoming more popular and in a short time this game may be 
to the girls what baseball is to the boys. 

The large boys are kept busy with the more active games 
such as soccer football, tennis, handball, jilayground ball 
and baseball. The outdoor gymnasium is used for play and 
the performance of "stunts." In order to maintain the 
interest and enthusiasm of the boys, local leagues are organ- 
ized, athletic meets are conducted, and teams travel to other 
grounds to compete. Saturday is usually a big day for 
match games. These games attract many visitors and pro- 
vide good wholesome amusement during leisure time. 

Legal holidays are celebrated at each playground in a 
manner suitable to the occasion. 

Some of the "clubhouses" contained branch 
libraries open two afternoons and one evening 
each week and circulating 1,500 books a month. 
On days when the library is open, checkers, 
authors, and other quiet games are played in the 
buildings. At Violet street, and Recreation Cen- 
ter, rooms were fitted-up as headquarters for dis- 
trict nurses. Here supplies w^ere kept, calls for 
nurses registered, and dispensary service given. 

^-Annual Report Los Angeles Playground Commission, 1912. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 109 

Voting booths were erected in many of the "club- 
houses ' ' and used in connection with the municipal 
elections. Less extensive uses were made by the 
adults than by the children and youths, but this 
was due rather to the limitations imposed by the 
nature of the physical facilities than to the con- 
cept of the function of public recreation held by 
those administering it. 

The next two cities to follow the example of 
Chicago and Los Angeles in the development of 
"recreation centers" were Pittsburgh and Phila- 
delphia, respectively in order of time. The first 
"fieldhouse" in Pittsburgh was opened in Wash- 
ington Park in 1910.^^ Among the organized 
'groups meeting there regularly during its first 
year were two Jewish clubs, a colored women's 
civic club, a colored young men's civic club, an 
athletic club, two Italian clubs, and a high-school 
boys' club. The cosmopolitan nature of these 
uses of the indoor facilities attests the concept of 
the function of a public "recreation center" that 
prevailed in that community at the time. Space 
does not permit full details of the development of 
recreational provision in Pittsburgh. It is sig- 
nificant, however, that before 1912, four other 
* ' recreation centers ' ' were completed : Lawrence 
Park of 5.72 acres, Ormsby Park of 2.25 acres. 
South Side Park of 1.75 acres, and Arsenal Park 
of 11 acres. Each of these four parks was 
equipped with a "fieldhouse," a ball field, a chil- 

^^Annual Report Pittsl)urgh Playground Association, 1912. 



110 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

dren's playground, a boys' and a girls' outdoor 
gymnasium. Lawrence and Ormsby had swim- 
ming pools, and the former also a wading pool. 
The activities of the Pittsburgh "recreation cen- 
ters" were representative of the prevailing 
concept of the function of the play movement, in- 
volving the physical, manual, social, aesthetic, and 
civic uses that were common to the South Parks 
and the Los Angeles recreation centers described 
above. 

In Philadelphia,^* the first ' ' recreation center ' ' 
was completed in 1911, the Starr Garden Eecrea- 
tion Park, opened on July 8, and dedicated on 
October 16. The area was 1.43 acres; the value, 
$232,041.58. The indoor plant consisted of a small 
' ' fieldhouse ' ' containing a gymnasium and assem- 
bly hall combined, shower baths for both men and 
women, a number of small club and games rooms. 
The outdoor equipment contained space for ball 
games, the usual playground apparatus, and a 
wading pool with sand beach. The activities con- 
sisted of classes, dances, and entertainments as 
well as the customary outdoor games and ath- 
letic events. The administration was committed 
to the Board of Eecreation of Philadelphia. At- 
tendance at this center totaled over 300,000 an- 
nually. 

During this period similar provision was made 
in four other centers: the Disston Eecreation 
Park of 1.25 acres, opened in 1912 ; the Sherwood 

^*Annual Report Board of Education, Philadelphia, 1913. 



THE STAGES OP THE PLAY MOVEMENT 111 

of 2.70 acres, completed in 1912; the Happy Hol- 
low of 4.25 acres, completed in 1913; and the 
Athletic of 4.18 acres, completed in 1913. The 
last contained a larger fieldhouse than any of the 
earlier recreation centers, having two gym- 
nasiums, an auditorium with stage, and several 
clubrooms, modeled after the South Park designs 
of that date. 

Other cities to follow the example of Chicago 
during the period between 1905 and 1912 were 
Minneapolis, which opened its first ''fieldhouse" 
at Logan Park, in 1912, and Oakland, California, 
Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Paul, Minnesota, 
immediately afterward. 

"In" Boston, the provision of indoor gymna- 
siums in connection with public baths instead 
of the fieldhouse type of building limited the 
indoor activities to those of a physical or aquatic 
nature. Provision for social and civic events was 
made by the School Board by the organization of 
social centers in the public schoolhouses. The 
relation of the public gymnasiums of Boston to 
the fieldhouses of Chicago is indicated by the fol- 
lowing sentence from one of the annual reports of 
the bath department :^^ 

It is a matter of particular interest that we have been 
able to give important assistance to the Chicago authorities 
in connection with the development of a remarkable system 
of gymnasiums and baths in a number of the city's small 
parks. 

In New York, four parks of the recreation- 

^^Seventh Annual Report Bath Dept., Boston, 1904-5, p. 2. 



112 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

center type were finished at tliis time; the first 
being Seward Park, referred to above under both 
the "model playground" and the "small park" 
stages. Here the essential features of equipment, 
activities, and leadership were similar to the Chi- 
cago small parks, although the greatest develop- 
ment of public provision for indoor recreation 
in New York has always been in the use made 
of the school buildings. 

While several cities followed the lead of the 
South Parks of Chicago, in the provision of 
"recreation centers" in parks, or on new sites 
acquired for play purposes, many more chose to 
expand the public uses of their school plants, add- 
ing evening recreational activities to the tradi- 
tional day classes. The pioneering work of this 
nature was done in New York City, but the 
demonstration that attracted nation-wide attention 
was performed in Rochester, New York, during 
1907-9. The first step toward this achievement 
was taken on February 15, 1907, when dele- 
gates from eleven organizations met in the Cham- 
ber of Commerce and formed themselves into the 
"School Extension Committee." The next step 
was the securing of an appropriation of $5,000 for 
the maintenance of the work during the first year. 
The third act was the decision to place all re- 
sponsibility for the inauguration of the work upon 
the school board of the city. The fourth step was 
the selection of a supervisor, even before any 
work had been organized or any facilities con- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 113 

structed. This supervisor, Mr. E. J. Ward, was 
sent to both Cliicago and New York to inspect 
the recreational work of those cities and bring 
back to Rochester recommendations concerning 
the method of procedure. Concerning his visits, 
the report of the League of Civic Clubs states: 
He visited Chicago and there made a careful investiga- 
tion of the great South Park system Later in the 

season he spent a week in visiting the recreation centers and 
studying the great public lecture system in New York City, 
.... He came back .... firmly convinced that the City of 
Rochester should not follow the lines of the work done in 
either New York or Chicago, but should profit by the experi- 
ence of both of those cities, mark out a new path for itself, 
and that so it might make a real contribution to the progress 
of municipal development.^^ 

The contribution which Rochester made was 
essentially twofold: economy and democracy in 
method of provision. It was pointed out that the 
fieldhouses duplicated the schoolhouses, entail- 
ing unnecessary financial expense, since the 
former were used almost entirely during the 
evenings and late afternoons while the latter were 
idle. It would be economy, therefore, to extend 
the uses of the school plants instead of con- 
structing additional facilities after the manner 
of the small parks and recreation centers of Chi- 
cago. Making the schoolhouse and surrounding 
grounds a starting point, additional features of 
equipment could be added at much less expense 
than required to purchase new sites and erect new 

^^Rochester Social ancl Civic Centers. Rep. of Civic Clubs, 
19^9. 



114 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

edifices; hence, the effort toward economy. In 
studying the recreational activities in operation in 
New York schools, it was seen that more par- 
ticipation by the individuals using the evening 
recreation centers was desirable. This led to the 
plan of introducing further democracy in admin- 
istration of the Rochester social and civic cen- 
ters than existed at that time in either New York 
or Chicago. The very title, "social and civic cen- 
ters," suggested an emphasis upon citizenship in 
a manner more direct than prevailed in the other 
cities studied. There, recreation was still "for 
the people" as far as its administration might be 
considered ; here, the ideal was to introduce more 
general participation by the public in the selec- 
tion and regulation of its recreational pursuits. 
More freedom and with it greater collective re- 
sponsibility. At no time in the evolution of the 
play movement is the effort to make an adjust- 
ment to the changed social situation of modern 
times more self-evident than in the motives and 
explanations given by the people of Rochester 
for their attempt to develop "social and civic 
centers." An eloquent declaration of this fact 
is contained in the following statement : 

On July 5, 1907, a joint meeting of the Board of Educa- 
tion and the School Extension Committee was held. At this 
meeting the whole matter of the policy of the social centers 
was thoroughly discussed and the plans of the work were 
definitely laid. In that meeting it was decided that the 
spirit that should be striven for in the social centers should 
be the democratic, friendly spirit of broad acquaintanceship, 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 115 

which made ''the little red schoolhouse" in the country the 
fine community gathering place that it was 

The social center was not to take the place of any exist- 
ing institution; it was not to be a charitable medium for 
the service particularly of the poor; it was not to be a new 
kind of evening school; it was not to take the place of any 
church or other institution of moral uplift; it was not to 
serve simply as an ''improvement association" by which the 
people of one community should seek only the welfare of their 
district; it was not to be a "civic reform" organization, 
pledged to some change in city, or state, or national admin- 
istration ; it was just to be the restoration to its true place in 
social life of that most American of all institutions, the 
Public School Center, in order that through this extended use 
of the school building, might be developed, in the midst of 
our complex life, the community interest, the neighborly 
spirit, the democracy that we knew before we came to the 
city. 

In carrying out this program it was decided to 
organize opportunities for physical activity by 
means of gymnasiums and baths, for passive 
recreations by nieans of table games, for intel- 
lectual activity by means of libraries, and lec- 
tures, and entertainments once each week, and 
for the exercise of citizenship by self-governing 
clubs for men, women, and children. It was 
further decided to permit the discussion of all 
questions at the public meetings, even those per- 
taining to religion and politics, a privilege denied 
by the South Parks, although granted in New 
York City. 

The outstanding features of the ''social cen- 
ter" type of provision for play and recreation as 



116 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

expressed in Rochester were thus economy and 
democracy. The former was the more instru- 
mental in furthering the plan of using the school 
plant as a base from which to work out an ade- 
quate scheme of recreational provision. In many 
cities the problem of finances immediately handi- 
capped the development of "small park" recrea- 
tion centers, while the small cost of alterations 
and additional use of heat and light appealed to 
many in those cities just awakening to the new 
sense of recreational values. The outcome was 
a gradual transformation in the architecture of 
the schoolhouse and a demand for the extension 
of playground equipment upon school grounds. 
Perry 's^^ volume on "the wider use of the school 
plant" summarized the materialization of the 
movement in this stage of its evolution, while the 
New Trier Township High School, at Kenilworth, 
Illinois, and the more recent school plants of 
Gary, Indiana, typified the limit of development 
of the physical equipment of "recreation cen- 
ters" of this type. In each of these cities, tracts 
of five to twelve acres were secured as sites for 
school plants- and then developed so as to com- 
prise all the essential features of a "model play- 
ground," a "small park," a "fieldhouse" and a 
school building of the traditional type combined 
in one whole devoted to the education and play of 
all ages, throughout the year, and in physical, 
social, civic, aesthetic, and manual activities. 

5'^Clarence A. Perry, The Wider Use of the School Plant, 
Russell Sage Foundation, 1910. 




o 

s 

w 
M 

j" 
o 
o 

K 



X 



H 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 117 



In Table VII the extent of the use of school- 
houses as "recreation centers" is disclosed, first, 
for the period of 1910 to 1912 inclusive, and sec- 
ond, for the five subsequent years which overlap 
the fifth and sixth stages of the movement and 
lead to the current one. This table also dis- 
closes the fact that the use of the school plant 
for recreational as well as educational purposes 
was not a transitory feature of the movement 
but one that became permanent. 

TABLE VII 

Peogkess by Yeaes in the Development of Recreation Centers 

IN Schools 





1910 


1911 


1912 


1913 


1915 


1916 


1917 


Number of cities 

Number of centers... 


31 
201 


48 
248 


71 

278 


152 
629 


97 
573 


127 
663 


113 

757 



Total number of cities providing centers, 1910-12 150 

Total number of cities providing centers, 1913-17 489 

Total number of centers provided during 1910-12 727 

Total number of centers provided during 1913-17 2,622 

The facts relative to the "recreation center" 
stage of the play movement have now been an- 
alyzed. It has been found that the structure and 
the concept of the function in this stage of its 
history was characterized by the following fea- 
tures : (1) play and recreational opportunities for 
all ages; (2) throughout the year by the use of 
both indoor and outdoor facilities; (3) in physi- 
cal, manual, aesthetic, social, and civic activities ; 
(4) involving participation versus amusement, 
whereby individuals and groups made their recre- 
ation rather than received it, and thereby enjoyed 



118 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

a certain measure of self-expression in the use of 
tiieir physical and mental powers, opportunities 
which too frequently urban life had not previ- 
ously provided and which could only be seized 
by group or collective effort in the use of public 
facilities at hand, both in parks and school plants. 
E. The "civic art and welfare'' stage, 1912-14. 
During the previous stages in the evolution of 
the play movement, efforts were directed pri- 
marily toward the provision of specific facilities 
for play in the more congested districts of cities, 
and secondarily toward the organization of play 
activities on those respective sites. As a result 
of this concept of function, the movement devel- 
oped successively the ''sand garden," the "model 
playground, ' ' the ' ' small park, ' ' and the ' ' recrea- 
tion center." Each of these structures was an 
attempt to provide opportunity for play on a given 
locality, the ' ' playground. ' ' The last named type 
of facility, the "recreation center," represents 
the development, to date, of the physical struc- 
ture of provision for play and recreation for chil- 
dren, youths, and adults, upon a given locality. 
No modification or addition of a fundamental 
nature has been made in the physical aspect of 
the "recreation center" since the close of that 
stage of the movement. Developments since that 
date have been social rather than physical, in- 
volving the organization of activities on the one 
hand, and the method of supervision on the other. 
This fact characterizes the "civic art and wel- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 119 

fare" stage and the succeeding ones, as well, and 
distinguishes them from the preceding four. 

The presence of this change became marked 
with the incorporation in the movement of at- 
tempts either to regulate or organize play "out- 
side the playgrounds." These efforts were 
flanked on the one hand by municipal regulation 
of commercialized amusement and on the other 
by state recreational legislation, both permissive 
and mandatory, for the provision of facilities and 
activities. They occurred with great frequency 
throughout the country during the years between 
1911 and 1915, and involved both a general 
utilization of the dramatic, musical, and dancing 
arts, and an injection of social welfare propa- 
ganda sufficiently to modify the concept of the 
function of the play movement so as to consti- 
tute a distinct epoch in its history. This period 
the writer has entitled the ** civic art and welfare" 
stage. At this point the play movement becomes 
conscious of a wider field of action than any 
heretofore perceived. It becomes aware that it 
must not only provide ** playgrounds," as it had 
been doing for the preceding quarter of a cen- 
tury, but also that it must raise the standards 
of the popular amusements by the use of both 
restrictive and constructive measures. The 
former comprised efforts to regulate existing 
recreations, principally commercialized amuse- 
ments; the latter, ''municipal music," "munici- 



/ 



120 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

pal theatres," "municipal dances," and "com- 
munity dramatics, festivals, and pageantry." 

Among the musical expressions of the period 
were the "municipal orchestras" of Boston, 
Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, and San Francisco, 
the "municipal bands" of Chicago, and Houston, 
Texas, and the increase in the number of pub- 
lic band concerts in many cities (New York ap- 
propriating $100,000 for the services of seventy 
bands in one season, while the South Park Com- 
missioners of Chicago annually expended $20,000 
on twenty bands that gave a total of 100 concerts 
in the open during the months of July and 
August). The most notable expression, however, 
was the organization of the Civic Music Associa- 
tion of Chicago, chartered by the State of Illinois 
in the spring of 1913, "to promote and encourage 
the understanding of the art of music and the 
development of musical talent throughout the 
community."^® This association arranged artist 
recitals and orchestral and choral concerts in the 
recreation centers and school auditoriums of the 
city through the generosity of philanthropists and 
musicians alike, the latter donating their talent. 
Programs given in the fieldhouses were free, on 
account of a rule of the respective park commis- 
sioners forbidding the charging of admission fees, 
while those elsewhere could be heard by the pay- 
ment of ten cents at the door. Simultaneous with 

^Wirst Annual Report of Civic Music Association of Chi- 
cago, 1913. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 121 

the development of "civic music" in Chicago, 
came the rise of "community singing," notably 
in Wisconsin,^^ in connection with the extension 
department of the State University. While at 
first "community music," both in Chicago and 
elsewhere, was for the people, it soon became 
music, also, of and by the people, as choruses, and 
orchestras, and bands were formed in local cen 
ters for the study and enjoyment of music, often 
the folk-songs and dances, the music of the peo- 
ple. In order to counteract the tendency to play 
and sing the current compositions of the class 
popularly known at that time as "ragtime," ap- 
proved lists of songs were written and distributed, 
the first list'^'^ containing only eighteen, the sec- 
ond,®^ fifty-five. Also the selection of vocal or 
instrumental numbers to be given at the early 
concerts were approved beforetime. Thus the 
standard of the performances was kept sufficiently 
high to induce a satisfying response by the pub- 
lic to the ideal of "civic music" or "community 
music," namely the understanding, enjoyment, 
and participation by the people in the production 
of music that met with the requirements of art. 
More extensive than the efforts to raise the 
standard of musical appreciation, perhaps, were 
those in behalf of a higher form of dramatic ex- 

^^University of Wisconsin Extension Bulletin. 

^''Eighteen Songs for Community Singing, compiled by the 
Music Supervisors' National Conference, C. C. Birchard, Boston, 

^^Fifty-five Songs and Special Choruses for Community 
Singing, compiled by the Music Supervisors National Confer- 
ence, C. C. Birchard, Boston. 



122 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

pression. Among the many events were the con- 
struction of municipal theatres in Pittsfield and 
Northampton, Massachusetts ; Concordia, Kansas ; 
Hennessey, Oklahoma; Richland Center, Wiscon- 
sin; and Red Wing, Minnesota. Some of these 
institutions were administered by the municipali- 
ties ; others were leased to responsible companies ; 
but in all, the purpose was to raise the standard 
of dramatic performance, morally and artistically. 
Auditoriums for similar uses were constructed in 
Denver, San Francisco, Houston, and other cities. 
In addition to these events were other construc- 
tive efforts such as the organization of the Drama 
League of America, the Drama League of New 
York City, the Chicago Drama League, the New 
Theatre and the Little Theatre of New York, the 
Toy Theatre and the Drama Society of Boston, 
and the Wisconsin Dramatic Society. The latter 
sought to unite groups of amateurs throughout 
the State and "to raise the standard of dramatic 
appreciation," while the drama societies of the 
large cities sought "to promote in public schools, 
social centers, settlements, churches, and other 
agencies, amateur dramatic performances having 
an educational value, '"'^ and to bring to bear 
on the commercial stage the influence of a refined 
public opinion which would demand productions of 
a more desirable nature from both the artistic and 
the moral standpoint. This opinion was to be 

62Cf. Constitution and By-Laws, New York Dramatic 
Society. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 123 

formed by an educational process that involved 
participation by the public in amateur theatri- 
cals on the one hand, and the exercise of a mild 
censorship of commercial playhouses by the local 
committees on the other, demanding clean plays 
by helping to advertise the more acceptable shows. 

Festivals increased in great numbers during 
1912-14. The ''play festival" held in connection 
with the first annual meeting of the Playground 
Association of America in Chicago, June 7, 1907, 
gave suggestion to many communities on account 
of the newness of the Chicago recreation centers 
and the great interest manifested in them at the 
time. From that day onward, ''play festivals" 
multiplied in playgrounds and small communities 
not yet supplied with facilities bearing that name. 
Dancing, both aesthetic and folk, constituted a 
large measure of the programs. Spring, autumn, 
and Christmas festivals were among the more 
common types, and in their production many 
quaint old customs of England and Continental 
Europe were revived. 

Pageantry came into prominence during the 
years of 1911-14. While the Pageant of Educa- 
tion, in Boston, in 1908, may properly be regarded 
as the first of the series to be incorporated in the 
play movement at this time, and while Duxbury 
Days, An Historical Pageant, given in Duxbury, 
Massachusetts, in 1909,^^ was probably the first 
attempt of this series to present the history of a 

^^Cf. "List of Pageants," American Pageantry Association. 



124 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

community out of doors, the number of cities re- 
porting pageants as a feature of their provi- 
sion for play was 41, in 1911. The number stead- 
ily increased thereafter as seen in Table VIII, 
below. Among the more notable pageants were 
the MacDowell Memorial Pageant, Peterboro, 
New Hampshire, in 1910, which first attempted to 
''treat music seriously as a creative factor in the 
making of a Pageant"; the Historical Pageant 
of Philadelphia in 1912, in which 6,000 partici- 
pated ; the series of New England rural pageants 
beginning with that of Thetford, Vermont, 1911, 
and including those of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 
in 1912, and Meriden, New Hampshire, in 1913; 
and the St. Louis, Missouri, Pageant and Masque 
in 1914, in which 7,500 participated on each of 
five successive nights, from 6:30 until 10:30, be- 
fore 125,000 spectators nightly, and costing $125,- 
000 to produce. 

TABLE VIII 
Increase in Certain Artistic Expressions in the Play Move- 
ment During 1911 to 1915, Inclusive 



Years 



Number of cities reporting supervised 

playgrounds 

Number reporting instrumental music 

Number reporting dramatics 

Number reporting pageants 

Number reporting singing 



1911 


1912 


1913 


257 


285 


342 


27 


38 


51 


37 


37 


61 


41 


44 


52 


78 


84 


96 



*1915 



432 

69 

93 

102 

150 



*The Playground Association published no report for 1914. 

An analysis of Table VIII shows a signifi- 
cant number of cities making use of ''civic art," 
including music, both instrumental and vocal, dra- 
matics, and pageantry. In each type the absolute 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 125 

number increased during the period; and while 
in some instances the percentage of the whole 
number of cities declined, that fact was due to the 
rapid increase in the number of cities providing 
for play for the first time, whose activities there- 
fore were not as varied as in those communities 
in which provision was of longer standing. 

Among the many efforts aimed directly at the 
promotion of public welfare through constructive 
measures relative to the social recreations of the 
people were the ''municipal dances," These 
dances were organized and conducted by various 
departments of city governments as a possible 
solution of the moral problems arising in con- 
nection with "public dance halls." They were 
generally held in halls other than those in the 
recreational centers and followed the prevailing 
plan of the commercialized dancing pavilions 
with the exception that greater effort was made 
to supervise the patrons. Chaperones were pro- 
vided, minors under seventeen years of age usually 
excluded when unacompanied by parent or guar- 
dian, no liquor was sold in connection with the 
dance, and ''no improper conduct allowed." Mil- 
waukee seems to have been the first city to pro- 
vide such a dance, under Mayor Seidel's adminis- 
tration. Twenty-five cents a couple was charged 
for admission to the hall. On defeat of the Mayor 
for re-election, in 1912, however, the dances were 
discontinued with the return to power of a reac- 
tionary administration. In Cincinnati, the 



126 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Women's Civic Committee conducted public 
dances during 1913 in the music hall, open to 
adults on Saturday evenings and to children on 
Saturday afternoons. Twenty-two dances, at- 
tended by 14,000 people at an admission fee of 
fifteen cents a head, brought a slight profit to the 
committee. Soft drinks and ice cream were sold 
by concessionaires. No return checks were given 
to those leaving the hall while the dance was in 
progress, since it was customary for young peo- 
ple to leave the commercial dance halls in order 
to frequent nearby saloons during intermissions 
between numbers on the program. 

The most successful city was probably Cleve- 
land. This was due to the peculiar situation that 
existed at the time of the opening of the first 
dance. Thirty-two commercial halls had just been 
closed by city ordinance because of insanitary 
or immoral conditions. The school board hesi- 
tated in granting the use of school auditoriums 
for social purposes. Mayor Baker met the emer- 
gency by organizing the first "municipal dance" 
at the Edgewater pavilion, in August, 1912, at 
which he and Mrs. Baker led the grand march. 
Three cents was charged for a dance of five min- 
utes length ; in opposition to the commercial halls 
which asked five cents for a three minute dance. 
During the first year, $350 were received from 
11,630 dance tickets, while during 1914, receipts 
from the dances netted a profit to the city of 
$15,000. Afternoon sessions were held for chil- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 127 

dren, while minors under eighteen years were ex- 
cluded, unless chaperoned, after nine o 'clock P. M. 

The first ^'municipal dance" in Chicago was 
held on December 2, 1914. That day the news- 
papers printed the following invitation to the 
public : 

The City of Chicago invites you to attend the first 
municipal dance to be given under the auspices of the De- 
partment of Public Welfare at Dreamland Hall, West Van 
Buren and South Paulina Streets, tonight at eight o'clock. 
Admission, fifteen cents. 

Carter H. Harrison, Mayor. 

Mayor and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison led the 
grand march. Five thousand danced the waltz 
and two-step that night in one of the largest com- 
mercial dancing academies in the city. While this 
first ball was restricted to the ' '■ old dances, ' ' later 
ones permitted the ''new steps." The admission 
fees were twenty-five cents per couple or fifteen 
cents for each individual attending. These dances 
were under the general supervision of the Pub- 
lic Welfare Bureau of the city of Chicago and 
are to be distinguished in many ways from the 
dancing parties conducted for the preceding nine 
years in the fieldhouses of the South, West, and 
Lincoln Park Commissioners. In the latter, no 
admission fees were charged, attendance being by 
invitation of those giving the dance who paid for 
music, programs, and refreshments if any were 
served and who were forbidden to advertise or 
solicit funds for any purpose, or use liquors in 
connection with the use of the fieldhouses. 



128 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The "municipal dances" of Boston were held 
in the city indoor gymnasiums under the Park 
and Recreation Departments of the City, while in 
San Francisco both the new civic auditoriums and 
the streets were used for ' ' municipal dances ' ' un- 
der the supervision of the police. An admission 
fee was charged at the dances given in the audi- 
torium, while those in the streets were free. The 
hours were from eight until eleven o'clock. At- 
tendance was promiscuous. 

Closely related to the "municipal dances" 
were the efforts made by many cities to super- 
vise the commercialized halls. A typical case 
is that of Kansas City, Missouri, as stated in one 
of the annual reports of the Board of Public Wel- 
fare of that city:''* 

During this, the third year of supervision of dance halls, 
more dances were supervised at less cost .... the standard 
of conduct in the halls was much better than in the preceding 
year. This was largely due to an order prohibiting any man- 
ager from permitting patrons to leave the hall and later 
return. This order has finally met the approval of the dance 
hall managers and reduced the amount of disorder resulting 
from the free use of intoxicating liquor obtained by passing 

out of the hall to a nearby saloon This rule eliminated 

to an extent, a class of young women who stayed in the hall 
only long enough to meet a man, leave with him and later 
return. 

The inspectors watch carefully for young girls who 
appear to be under the age of seventeen. They are not per- 
mitted to remain in the hall unless accompanied by their 
mother, father or lawful ^ardian. The following day a 

^*Fourth Annual Report of Public Welfare Board, Kansas 
City, Missouri, April 22, 1913, p. 329. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 129 

woman investigator calls on the parents, who are charged 
with keeping the girl away from the halls. If this method 
fails the parents are summoned into the Juvenile Court and 
an effective arrangement is made by the Court. 

During 1913, the Public Welfare Board of 
Kansas City, issued 669 permits for dances, re- 
voked three, inspected 2,670 dances, reported and 
investigated 246 young girls, and tried eight cases 
in court. Equal attention was given to other 
forms of commercialized amusements, notably 
motion pictures and skating rinks, both in Kan- 
sas City and other cities where popular opinion 
was formed on the subject. In all, a total of 158 
cities attempted to regulate commercialized 
amusements by ordinances and inspections. 

Both the restrictive and constructive phases 
of the ''civic art and welfare" stage were rep- 
resented in the state and municipal legislation of 
the time which sought to prohibit what was be- 
lieved to be insanitary or anti-social and to pro- 
vide new opportunities for the expression of 
wholesome play and recreation interests. Or- 
dinances by cities either made certain forms of 
recreational behavior unlawful, or provided for 
the constructive facilities and the organization of 
activities of a moral character. Legislation by 
states involved both mandatory and permissive 
acts. The former made provision of public 
recreation obligatory, the latter, possible, by com- 
munities within the state. This period in the his- 
tory of the movement was one of great activity in 



130 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



recreational legislation as shown by Table IX 
which gives the number of legislative acts by- 
years and the number of states by which legisla- 
tion was enacted each year from 1889 to 1915. 

TABLE IX 

RECBB1A.TI0N LEX3I8LATION ENACTMENTS BY YeABS AND STATES 





No. of acts passed 


No. of states en- 


No. of states legis- 


Year 


by states 


acting for 1st time 


lating by years 


1889 


1 


1 


1 


1893 


1 


1 


1 


1907 


2 


2 


2 


1908 


3 


1 


2 


1909 


3 


3 


3 


1910 


1 





1 


1911 


14 


6 


9 


1912 


3 


2 


3 


1913 


24 


8 


15 . 


1914 


4 





3 


1915 


18 


4 


13 


Totals 


74 


28 


53 



An analysis of Table IX discloses greater 
activity during the period from 1911 to 1915, in- 
clusive, than during the preceding twenty-two 
years. Sixty-three bills were passed during these 
five years by eighteen states and Congress, out 
of a total of seventy-four bills by twenty-seven 
states and Congress, passed since 1889. 

By 1915, also many cities had passed ordi- 
nances pertaining to play and amusements. A 
report by the Russell Sage Foundations^ contains 
those by sixteen cities, although the total num- 
ber of cities enacting ordinances relative to rec- 

^^Recreation Legislation 1913, Russell Sage Foundation 
pamphlet, No. 106. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 131 



reation was estimated by Edwards^® at 158. Of 
the sixteen mentioned by the report, New York 
was first, in 1895, with a law requiring the con- 
struction of a playground attached to or used in 
connection with each school building erected there- 
after. Boston followed in 1907; Hartford, Con- 
necticut, in 1909 ; Buffalo, New York, Charleston, 
South Carolina, and Oakland, California, in 1910 ; 
Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New Britain, Con- 
necticut, in 1911 ; Holyoke and Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, 
in 1913; and Brockton, Massachusetts, Detroit, 
Michigan, and Syracuse, New York, in 1915. 

TABLE X 

Recreational Legislation bt Subjects, Showing Number of 

States and Cities with Laws Pertaining to 

Bach Subject by 1915 



Subjects 


8 

Id 


03 


Subjects 


States 
Cities 


Board of Recreation . 
Athletic Fields 




1 

5 
2 
3 
2 
2 

2 
22 


1 

2 
2 
1 
1 
2 
1 
1 

13 


School Playgrounds .... 
Public Parks 


10 5 
10 2 


Baths 


Recreation Buildings.... 
Recreation Commissions 

Recreation Surveys 

School Gardens 


4 6 


Commercial Recreation 

Concerts 

Dance Halls 


4 11 
1 1 
1 


Holiday Celebrations 


Social Centers . 


19 3 


Juvenile Commissions. 
Local Planning Boards 
Public Playgrounds 


State Park Commission 
Sunday Recreation 


1 
1 



An analysis of the preceding evidence relative 
to the ''civic art and welfare" stage discloses 
three objectives which shaped developments: (1) 
the desire to incorporate the dramatic, musical, 

^^R. H. Edwards, Popular Amusements, p. 176. 



132 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

and dancing arts in the field of public provision 
for play and recreation in order to counteract the 
deleterious influences of the commercialized 
theatre and motion picture; (2) the impulse to 
regulate, not destroy, commercial amusements so 
as to conserve the social values potential in them ; 
(3) the belief in the efficacy of city- wide organi- 
zation for the promotion of art and welfare 
through activities conducted on a larger scale and 
open to promiscuous attendance, but inspected 
and chaperoned by public officials, in the place 
of the preceding smaller efforts in localities where 
attendance was limited to neighborhood groups. 
The first two objectives remained as a permanent 
contribution to the concept of the function of the 
movement, but the third was transitory and the 
disillusionment which followed it gave rise to 
the distinguishing features of the ''neighborhood 
organization" stage of the movement. 

The first of the three outstanding features of 
the "civic art and welfare" stage was the recog- 
nition of the legitimate desire of the people for 
drama, music, and dancing, on the one hand, and 
on the other, of the exploitation of that normal 
desire by commercialized amusements which 
"debased art for profit," as Percy MacKaye" 
pointed out, while the philanthropic and religious 
societies generally "ignored art" although seek- 
ing to benefit society. 

•'^Percy MacKaye, The Civic Theatre in Its Relation to the 
Redemption of Leisure, 1912, p. 31. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 133 

Now in organized leisure certain facts are to be noted. 
First, our leisure, where organized for amusement, recognizes 
art, but debases it for private profit. This is true of our 
commercial theatres, vaudeville houses, moving-picture shows, 
dance halls, etc. Secondly, our leisure, where organized for 
"education or religion," ignores art entirely while seeking 
to uplift the public without it. This is true of our public 
schools, universities, churches, libraries, etc. The notable 
exceptions are the playground associations, institutions for 
public music, and our sporadic festivals and pageants. 

The second characteristic of the period was 
the increase in knowledge, by communities, of 
conditions which prevailed in the leisure pur- 
suits of the public as set forth by private studies, 
such as that by M. M. Davis, Jr.,*^^ in New York 
City, and public investigations such as the recrea- 
tional surveys conducted in Kansas City, Milwau- 
kee, Cleveland, and elsewhere. These disclosures 
led directly to the injection of both restrictive and 
constructive measures designed to promote more 
wholesome conditions and a keener appreciation 
by the people of the true values in recreational 
activities. Consequently inspections increased, 
ordinances were passed by city councils, agitation 
for state recreational legislation made, and lec- 
tures, exhibits, and moving pictures introduced 
in increasing numbers into the existing recreation 
centers. 

The third distinctive feature was the imme- 
diate reaction to the situation disclosed by the 

68M. M. Davis, Jr., The Exploitation of Pleasure, Russell 
Sage Foundation. 



134 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

preceding two. The local centers were neither 
sufficient in number nor generally equipped with 
leadership and financial resources necessary to 
promote art or conserve the recreational values 
of the city at large. The existing facilities and 
organization w^ere supplemented by city-wide ac- 
tion both restrictive and constructive. City and 
county festivals and pageants were presented, 
municipal dances were conducted, state and city 
ordinances regulating commercialized amusements 
or providing public recreations were passed, pub- 
lic welfare bureaus incorporating the provision 
of play facilities or the inspection of existing 
recreations as one of their functions were organ- 
ized, and municipal theatres and auditoriums were 
erected. But the populations concerned were too 
large, the situation too complex, for so simple 
a solution. The majority of provisions were ex- 
amples of recreation for the people rather than 
that of and hy them as prevailed in both the pre- 
ceding and the subsequent stages. It became more 
and more apparent that men live in groups and 
must play in groups, as Gulick'''' pointed out, and 
that a reorganization of the method of adminis- 
tering the local recreation centers, instead of a 
city-wide attack upon the recreation problem in- 
dependent of them, was necessary. Its develop- 
ment constitutes the history of the subsequent 
stage. 

^^L. H. Gulick and others, Minority Report, Memorandum 
on Recreation to New York Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment, 1913. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 135 

F. The "neighborhood organization" stage, 
1915-18. A sequel to the ''civic art and welfare" 
stage of the play movement was that of "neigh- 
borhood organization." The methods of the for- 
mer in manifestation of the growing interest in 
community welfare, as exemplified on ^the one 
hand by municipal dances, civic music, commu- 
nity drama, and pageantry, and on the other by 
recreational legislation and the regulation and 
supervision of commercialized amusements, met 
with only moderate success as measures for the 
conservation of leisure in adjustment of the con- 
temporary social situation. The city-wide method 
of control and provision of recreational activities 
came far from yielding all that was expected of it. 
Among the restrictive measures, for example, the 
public inspection of commercial dance halls and 
the chaperonage of "municipal dances" was soon 
declared an ineffectual scheme for solving the 
"dance problem." 

The supervision of dance halls tends to establish public 
confidence in these places. Supervision only gives the halls 
a ''surface" decency, and no kind of supervision can reach 
the evil influence of mixing unknown bad characters with 
those who are seeking innocent amusement/" 

Commercial recreation has signally failed to meet the 
demands of the people during the leisure period. Public 
recreation consciously aiming at the things agreed as best in 
our social organism, we feel, must take its place. 

Commercial recreation is charged with: debasing the 
tastes of the people; offering passive recreation only; anti- 
social tendencies in breaking up the family groups seeking 

"•^Fourth Annual Report Department Public Welfare, Kan- 
sas City, Mo., 1913, p. 329. 



136 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

pleasure; consorting with vice; levying a terrific tax — 
perhaps over a hundred and fifty million a year in Chicago; 
never attempting developmental or educational programs.'^^ 

Not only on tlie restrictive side, but with 
respect also to the constructive features of the 
"civic art and welfare" stage, were the attain- 
ments disappointing. The groups involved were 
too large and the events too infrequent. Grad- 
ually the inadequacy of the scheme was discerned 
and a decentralized plan of organization con- 
ceived. This plan was regional as well as func- 
tional. Its dynamic was the idea of locality ; and 
the neighborhood in place of the city, as in the 
former stage, was chosen as the unit of popula- 
tion and area upon which effort should be 
centered. The residents of the respective neigh- 
borhoods, corresponding in both area and popu- 
lation to the school districts of city and country, 
were asked to participate in both the control and 
the support of the scheme of provision for play 
undertaken in the vicinity of their homes. Ad- 
ministration of the recreation of the community 
was thereby decentralized, localized geographic- 
ally, and made democratic. By this adjustment, 
it was hoped, a general participation by adults 
as well as youths and children would result, and 
a greater number of centers, a more flexible pro- 
gram, and more frequent activities become pos- 
sible on account of the aid secured in leadership 
and financial support. 

"ij. R. Richards, Superintendent of Playgrounds, South 
Park Commissioners, Chicago, in unpublished general letter to 
Park Directors, Dec. 9, 1914. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 137 

The following is a contemporary statement of 
the concept of the function of '^ self-supporting" 
and ''self-governing" recreation centers: 

The leisure of our people has been handed over to com- 
merce. This has broken up the family circle. The father 
finds his happiness in the saloon; the boy seeks his pleasure 
in the poolroom, or with the gang; the daughter succumbs 
to the lure of glittering dance halls. The only force that will 
rebind the disintegrated family ties, insure the integrity 
of the home, concentrate domestic interests, is the school 
center 

The centers reach an average total of fifty thousand 
people per night (in New York). A small portion of the 
entire population of the city is thus served at the present 
time. If recreation is to be augmented so that it will reach 
ten times as many as it does now, it would cost the city in 
the neighborhood of $500,000 a year 

A close analysis of the operation of the recreation cen- 
ters discloses the fact that the greater part of the monetary 
appropriation is divided between the cost of supervision and 

the cost of equipment " Self-government ' ' may partly 

replace expert supervision, and ''self-support" may partly 
supply the financial sinews for the operating expenses.'^^ 

The sense in which the terms "self-govern- 
ment" and "self-support" were used requires 
explanation at this point since neither was taken 
literally. Each was applied in a limited manner ; 
thus, in the financial support of public education 
and recreation the original cost of both school 
buildings, parks, and playgrounds was met 
through taxation, as was the expense of heating, 
lighting, cleaning, and maintenance of properties. 

''^E. C. Gibney, Twentieth Annual Report of Superintend- 
ent of Schools, New York City, 1918, pp. 58-59. 



138 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

In the government or administration, likewise, 
public officials, both on general boards of control 
and in local centers as expert leaders, exercised 
the right of veto of any action taken by a local 
group when the same was believed to be dele- 
terious to the larger welfare. As one observer" 
expressed it when speaking of city neighborhood 
organizations : 

Self-government and self-support cannot be absolute. 
There must be an official body that is responsible for public 
properties, which formulates salient policies, which stimulates 
local interest, which standardizes the mechanical aspects of 
the system through reports, permits, etc. 

In the "neighborhood organization" stage of 
the play movement there was a revival of the 



>> 



underlying concept of the "recreation center,' 
but there was added to that instrument a new 
meaning and a more efficient method of operation. 
While making use of the same physical plant, the 
small park fieldhouse or the public-school build- 
ing, it utilized the principle of participation by 
all the residents of the locality in the support 
and control of the center as a "single, all-inclu- 
sive, organized society'"* for deliberation and 
action upon all questions relative to their common 
life, play being one. The contribution of "neigh- 
borhood organization ' ' to the ' ' recreation center ' ' 
was nowhere more clearly stated than by Ward^^ 
who consistently used the term "social center" 

■^^E. C. Gibney, Twentieth Annual Report of Superintend- 
ent of ScJwols, New York City, p. 74. 

T'lE. J. Ward, The Social Center, p. 253. 
-'Hhid. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 139 

to describe the type of organized neighborhood 
that was receiving attention at this time. 

In America, where the basic essential of society is its 
democratic sovereignty, the term ''social" center is properly 
used only of an institution built upon a foundation of demo- 
cratic expression. The social center of any community is 
the place where the members of that community have their 
headquarters of expression as a single, all-inclusive, organ- 
ized society The polling place is the center, and all 

the center there is, in most communities. When the school- 
house is made the headquarters of the community organiza- 
tion, either for voting or for deliberation, or both, then, and 
only then, does it become the social center. 

While the schoolhouse used as merely a recreation center 
is not immoral, as the privately run pleasure resort is likely 
to be, neither is it positively moral. It is a negatively good 
institution. In order to be positively good, in order to be 
constructively moral, it must be democratic, for positive 
moral development comes only with self-expression under 
self-restraint, that is, with democracy. 

So extensively was the plan of ''self-govern- 
ment" and "self-support" of recreation through 
"neighborhood organization" applied that the 
prevailing plan of "public" administration was 
altered as "over-head" organization developed 
in the form of advisory committees represen- 
tative of the respective local centers. These 
committees co-operated with the public officials 
appointed by government to administer play- 
grounds, parks, or school plants, and devised 
ways and means for a more efficient financial 
assistance on the part of the respective "neigh- 
borhood associations." Here for the first time 



140 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

in the history of the play movement did the pro- 
vision of facilities and the organization of activ- 
ities come from the people, ''from the bottom up 
instead of from the top down," as one writer 
expressed iV^ The first of these overhead organ- 
izations to be effected was that of the Community 
Center Conference of Chicago, established in 
April, 1916, while the most complete was probably 
that of the League of Neighborhood School Cen- 
ters of New York, formed in February, 1917." 

The outstanding feature of this stage, how- 
ever, was the "neighborhood council" or, as it 
came to be known later, the "community coun- 
cil," in connection with "neighborhood associa- 
tions" at first and "community organization" in 
the end. Local societies and institutions were 
correlated in the ' ' councils. ' ' Both departments 
of government, as those of health, recreation, 
public welfare, police, etc., and city, state, and 
national voluntary associations of a philanthropic 
character, co-operated to mutual advantage. As 
a result of these connections, the field of activities 
of the "recreation centers" was greatly widened. 
Among the types that were newly organized or 
greatly extended were the "community forum," 
the "to^^^l meeting," the "community press," 
the "welfare exhibits," lectures on civic themes, 
motion pictures, "social surveys," "co-operative 
stores," "co-operative banks," and "community 

days. ' ' 

T^E. C. Gibney, Cf. 20th Annual Report of Superintendent 
of Schools, New York City, 1918, pp. 72, 79. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 141 

The origin of the concept of the structure and 
function of the "neighborhood organization" 
stage may be traced to two sources: the one, 
theoretical; the other, practical. These sources 
furnished the explanations and the types of activi- 
ties, respectively, of this stage of the movement 
and brought it into a functional union with scien- 
tific study of the problem of community organi- 
zation on the one side and with the traditional 
community institutions and heritages of Ameri- 
can life on the other. The former pertained to 
the re-valuation of the neighborhood by students 
of political and social science, the latter to the 
revival of the neighborhood relation under the 
changed social situation. As the nineteenth cen- 
tury had wrought a deterioration of the neigh- 
borhood, so the twentieth was to work out its 
reconstruction. The neighborhood, it was pointed 
out, could no longer be disregarded by either the 
politician or the social worker. Its function in 
the complicated society of today was held to be 
comparable^^ to that which it performed in the evo- 
lution of society, and welfare movements includ- 

■•^Cf. Robert A. Woods, "The Neighborhood in Social Re- 
construction," Proceedings and Papers of the American Socio- 
logical Society, 1913. "It is, I believe, one of the most 
important, and one of the most slighted, considerations affect- 
ing all the social sciences, that the neighborhood relation has 
a function in the maintenance and progress of our vast and 
infinitely complicated society today vi^hich is not wholly 
beneath comparison with the function which it exercised in 
the creative evolution of that society. But there are today 
signs of a wholly new emphasis, both theoretical and practical, 
upon the function of the neighborhood as affecting the whole 
contemporary social process." 



142 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

ing that of play and recreation must work from 
it as well as toward it, hy it as well as for it. 
The process by which this end was to be attained 
was designated ''neighborhood organization" or 
"neighborhood reconstruction" at the outset and, 
"community organization" after the plan of 
adjustment was perfected. The organization of 
the residents in the respective local districts was 
known variously as the "neighborhood associa- 
tion," the "neighborhood" or "community coun- 
cil," or the "organized community." 

Among the theoretical contributions involving 
a re-valuation of the neighborhood by students 
of social science was that of Cooley,^® in 1909, 
who designated the neighborhood as a "primary 
group" instrumental both in producing human 
nature and in molding institutions. Another 
widely read monograph was that of Wilcox,*° in 
1911, in which the deterioration of the "local cen- 
ters ' ' of social organization in urban communities 
was deplored and their reconstruction, recom- 
mended. In 1911, also, Woodrow Wilson,^^ in a 

^^C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, Chas. Scribners and 
Sons, pp. 23 ff. 

^<'E)elos F. Wilcox, The American City, The Macmillan Co., 
chaps, i, viii. 

siWoodrow Wilson, "The Social Center, A Means of Com- 
mon Understanding," University of Wisconsin Extension Divi- 
sion, Bulletin. "It is necessary that simple means should be 
found by which .... we may get together .... bring all 
men into common counsel and so discover what is the common 
interest. That is the problem of modern life which is so 
specialized that it is almost devitalized, so disconnected that 
the tides of life will not flow. There is no sovereignty of the 
people if the several sections of the people are at loggerheads 
vith one another. Sovereignty comes with co-operation." 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 143 

paper read before the first national "social cen- 
ter" conference at Madison, Wisconsin, pointed 
out the necessity of bringing "all men into com- 
mon counsel and so discovering what is the com- 
mon interest ' ' ; while Gulick,^^ that year, declared 
in New York, that "the people themselves 
through the effort of organized voluntary groups, 
shall make their own recreation, govern it, and 
pay for it," in their uses of public playgrounds 
and school plants. In 1913, Ward^^ stated that 
it was "of the greatest importance to point out 
the truth that without a basis in self-government, 
there is no positive moral training in the recrea- 
tional use" of public facilities provided for that 
purpose, but it remained for Woods,®* December, 

82Luther H. Gulick, "Memorandum on Recreation Ad- 
dressed to the New York Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment, by its Sub-committee," The Survey, August 23, 1913. 
"Those men and women who are members of private clubs 
insist on being allowed to spend their social hours with their 
own group, among people who want what they want in the 
way they want it. The great mass of people, who have no 
private clubs, are entitled to these same privileges. They too 
are entitled to pay for their own recreation, to govern their 
own recreation, and to spend their leisure hours with their 
own social group. The social center, whether it be on school 
property, park property, or other property, is such by reason 
of the very fact that it gives this kind of right to the average 

man, woman, or child The aim of the social center is 

that public money shall provide simply the basic physical op- 
portunity for recreation, while the people themselves, through 
the effort of organized voluntary groups, shall make their own 
recreation, govern it, and pay for it. The social center is not 
a form of paternalism, for it merely provides the channels 
through which the social life can flow, just as the street pro- 
vides the channel through which the physical city, is able 
to move." 

83E. J. Ward, The Social Center, Appleton, 1913, pp. 252 ff. 

84Robert A. Woods, "The Neighborhood in Social Recon- 
struction," Proceedings of the American Sociological Society, 
1913. First read before the meeting of the American Socio- 



144 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

1913, to indicate precisely the concept of the 
function of the neighborhood in the recreational 
provision of the community. 

The neighborhood is large enough to include in essence 

all the problems of the city, the state, and the nation 

On the other hand, it is small enough to be a comprehensible 
and manageable community unit. It is in fact the only one 
that is comprehensible and manageable; the true reason why 
city administration breaks down is that the conception of the 
city breaks down. The neighborhood is concretely conceiv- 
able; the city is not, and will not be except as it is organic- 
ally integrated through its neighborhoods. 

Among the practical sources of the origin of 
the concept of "neighborhood organization" were 
the many manifestations of community spirit and 
the collective capacity of the common people in the 
history of America. The foremost example was 
probably the New England ' ' town meeting. ' ' This 
institution was often cited as the prototype of the 
self-governing and self-supporting plan of admin- 
istration of recreation. An instance follows : 

Americans are growing too prone to participate in na- 
tional affairs only during political campaigns. The passing 
of the old town meeting has created a crying need for some 
vehicle by which the static citizen may be converted into the 
dynamic citizen by constant participation in public affairs.^^ 



logical Society at Minneapolis, December 27, 1913, but given 
also before the City Club of Chicago, December 31, following. 
At this meeting a number of recreation administrators were 
present, and Mr. E. B. DeGroot, Secretary of the Playground 
Association of Chicago, and formerly Superintendent of Play- 
grounds and Sports of the South Park Commissioners, pre- 
sided. Here was a point of contact between the scientific and 
the practical groups. 

ssEugene C. Gibney, 20th Annual Report, Superintendent 
of Schools, New York, 1918. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 145 

Even the term "town meeting" was used by 
some to describe the conduct of an organized 
neighborhood in conjunction with a school or park 
recreation center. 

Another prototype was the neighborhood rec- 
rejational gatherings of the nineteenth century 
which had become less frequent and in some com- 
munities abandoned entirely: 

It is generally agreed that there are fewer opportunities 
for the people of the country to get together and have a gen- 
eral good time than there used to be. There used to be the 
husking bees, the barn raisings, the threshing days, even the 
log rollings. There used to be the apple cuttings, the bean 
stringings, the sugar makings. There used to be the spelling 
bees, the old-time *'literaries," the ''heated" debates. There 
are not so many of these ''diversions" today. In many 
communities all of these have been entirely abandoned. 
Nothing has taken their places.^^ 

The attention of play leaders was directed to 
the schoolhouse as the more universally accessible 
facility that might serve as the stage of action 
for collective recreational pursuits and its place 
in the neighborhood life of the former generation 
was recalled.^^ The public libraries were also 
cited as examples of what could be done by col- 
lective effort,®^ while among the more recent at- 
tempts were the ''Hesperia movement," the 

86L. J. Hanifan, Community Social Gatherings, 1914, p. 6. 

^''E. J. Ward, Songs of the Neighborhood (mimeographed 
collection for use in recreational centers and neighborhood 
associations). 

88"The library in almost every instance has grown up as 
the spontaneous expression of the ideals of the people and of 
their characteristic determination to realize them." — Joseph 
Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, p. 11. 



146 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

''grange," the "consolidated school," and the 
''co-operative buying and marketing" enterprises. 
These movements and institutions were studied 
by practical workers in the field of playground 
and recreation administration as types of col- 
lective enterprises that offered suggestions for 
either the content or method of "neighborhood 
organization. ' ' 

While it is quite impossible to measure the 
influence of each of the authors and prototypes 
cited above upon the development of "neighbor- 
hood organization," that both were instrumental 
is a fact. During the years between 1910 and 
1917, in which the present writer was associa- 
ted with the development of neighborhood and 
community organization in connection with the 
play and recreation centers of Chicago, the ideas 
of these authors and the examples of community 
effort presented above were discussed at both 
the local meetings and the national conferences 
of play directors. Among the latter, special men- 
tion may be made of the annual conventions of 
the Playground and Recreation Association of 
America; at New York, in 1915, the general sub- 
ject being, "The Awakening of Neighborhood 
Life in America ' ' ; and at Grand Eapids, in 1916, 
"Community Building through Play." In this 
connection, also, attention should be called to three 
other series of annual conferences, namely, (1) 
the National Conference on Community Centers, 
at New York in 1916 and at Chicago in 1917; 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 147 

(2) the National Conference of Social Work;®^ 

(3) the meetings of the National Social Unit 
Organization at New York, during the same 
period. The personnel of each of these groups 
of conferences was much the same, including 
many recreational administrators, and their pro- 
grams voiced the prevailing sentiment of the play 
movement between 1915 and 1918. 

Among the urban communities in which 
'* neighborhood organization" was attempted as a 
method of administering play facilities, Chicago 
and New York City lead, seconded by Philadel- 
phia and Cincinnati. Progress in recreational 
provision in these four cities will now be analyzed, 
and a survey made of similar developments in 
rural communities during the same period. In 
this survey special reference will be made to Wis- 
consin, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Illinois, 
and Kansas. 

s^Among the papers read at the National Conferences of 
Social Work held during the period from 1915 to 1918 are the 
following: 

1915, Hanmer, "Organizing the Neighborhood for Recreation." 

1916, Harrison, "Community Action Through Surveys." 
1916, Burns, "Organization of Community Forces." 

1916, DeLong, "The School as a Community Center." 

1917, Woods, "The City and Its Local Copamunity Life." 
1917, Todd, "Reconstruction of Existing Rural Agencies." 

1917, Lindemann, "Boys' and Girls' Clubs as Community 

Builders." 

1918, Bellamy, "A Community Recreation Program for Juve- 

niles." 

1918, Burchard, "Community Councils and Community Cen- 
ters." 

1918, Elliott, "A Community Store in a Neighborhood House." 

1918, Ingram, "A Community Kitchen in a Neighborhood 
House." 

1918, Wilson, "Rural Centers of Community Activity." 



148 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

In Cliicago, the development of organized 
neighborhoods or "little communities" was ef- 
fected in connection with the "small park recre- 
ation centers" and the "community centers" in 
the public schools. The nature of the structure 
and concept of the former is disclosed by the fol- 
lowing general letter of the superintendent of the 
South Park Playgrounds to directors of the 
"small parks," under date of December 9, 1914, 
setting forth the policy of administration for the 
coming year:®" 

Recreation is a word descriptive of all that is done 
during the leisure period of the people. It is not one activ- 
ity, nor a term applicable to one part of the community; it is 
so comprehensive that it includes all of the people and all 

their recreation, all the time It is the aim of each 

park to establish this year (1915) a permanently progressive 
and constructive policy of efficient service to all the com- 
ponent groups of its community. To do this definite organ- 
ization is necessary^, comprehensive and flexible, but precise 
enough to accomplish results. The better articulation with 
the community is the plan, and the hearty co-operation with 
and from the community is asked. Perhaps we must plead, 
we must cajole to get it — but we must get it. 

The three fundamental and generic purposes to be se- 
cured are: (1) preservation of health, (2) raising of civic 
and industrial standards, (3) increasing industrial efficiency. 

To accomplish, or to begin, the above program the organ- 
ization of the four, more or less, distinctive groups of the 
community is to be made. 

Group I. The mature men and women, who are inter- 
ested in the essential things and are carrying the responsi- 

90 J. R. Richards, General Letter (unpublished) to Direc- 
tors of Parks, December 9, 1914, "Statement of the Construc- 
tive Plan of Community Work to be Established at Each Park." 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 149 

bilities and paying the taxes; the parents of the children 
and others. This group must furnish advice and aid in 
making possible this plan of efficient service. They should 
be counseled on the way to do a thing and called in to help. 
They will not furnish ideas or a program at first, but will be 
impressed with and aid this scheme, if it is put to them 
rightly. 

Grroup II. Younger men and women, those interested 
very largely in social pleasures, dancing, etc. This group 
may be reached by co-ordinating the different social organ- 
izations now existing at each park. Organize a senate from 
their delegates and many things may be accomplished. From 
them should come dramatic, literary, and musical recruits. 
They can be educated into real social intercourse and not 
allowed to dissipate all their energies on the dance. 

Group III. The members of gymnasium classes and boys 
and girls competing in local park athletics. An association 
with self-governing features and efficient co-operation will be 
formed. A plan to reward worth, and not winners alone, 
will be put into operation. 

Group IV. Little children. A modified junior city is to 
be tried, with ideals of mutual helpfulness and self-govern- 
ment. A savings bank is planned to develop thrift and 
responsibility. 

While the organization of the community had 
been made by one park^^ before the formulation 
of the policy outlined in the above letter, by the 
close of the year 1915, seven of the existing eleven 
all-year centers of the South Park Commissioners 
had either completed, or were in, the process of 
organization.''^ During the subsequent two years, 

siThe Hamilton Park Neighborhood Council was organized 
October-December, 1914. 

92Cf. Annual Report South Park Commissioners, 1915, p. 
68. "With a view of articulating the parks with the neighbor- 
hood and securing a conscious community spirit and collective 
effort in solving community problems, we have been busy the 



150 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

practically all of the twenty-five park recreation 
centers in the city developed some form of 
"neighborhood organization." The term chosen 
by all to designate the organization of each cen- 
ter was "community council." 

The form of organization of the respective 
"park community councils" differed in details. 
In some the parents of the children formed the 
nucleus of the community organization; in 
others, representatives of the existing local socie- 
ties and institutions constituted the "community 
council ; ' ' while in still others, membership in the 
"council" was open to the entire neighborhood, 
including in its ' ' executive committee ' ' some indi- 
viduals who were representatives of local organi- 
zations and others who were not members of 
neighborhood societies. The "standing commit- 
tees" or "departments" of the respective "coun- 
cils" differed in number and name. Those of 
the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Council were 
the following: membership, publicity, ways and 



past year in organizing the various communities of our dis- 
trict. Participation was the keynote of the whole plan as it 
is with all effective training. Weekly meetings of directors 
were held and plans thoroughly discussed. Many problems 
presented themselves, such as the necessity of creating a com- 
munity sentiment in the park locality before real community 
effort could be undertaken, and the best way to secure neigh- 
borhood counsellors and workers. Of course, directors were 
not equally responsible, and better work has been done in 
some parks than others. Progress, however, has been made 
and organizations of neighborhoods are in existence at Palmer 
Park, Bessemer Park, Russell Square, and Hamilton Park, and 
have been started at Davis Square and Mark White Square. 
Armour Square is getting in shape to begin and the other 
parks will follow soon." 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 151 

means, program, vigilance, welfare, improvement, 
home and markets, education, civics, athletics, 
social, musical, dramatic, literary, arts and crafts, 
and outdoor life.®" The pioneer work of "neigh- 
borhood organization" attempted at the "small 
parks" encountered many difficulties: (1) The 
population of each "district" was too large. (2) 
The boundaries of the respective districts were 
not definitely fixed. (3) The greater number of 
the parks were arbitrarily located and the re- 
spective districts surrounding them possessed, 
therefore, no natural unity due to geography, in- 
dustry, or demography. (4) The park commis- 
sioners rigidly enforced an antiquated ordinance 
forbidding political meetings. (5) Another rule 
prohibited any individual or group to charge 
admission fees, solicit funds, or sell articles for 
any purpose, philanthropic, community, or other- 
wise, while using park facilities. This last named 
restriction limited the financial resources to mem- 
bership dues and voluntary subscriptions and 
proved a great handicap to the work of the "coun- 
cils." 

Table XI discloses the plan of organization of 
the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Council, typi- 
cal of those of the South Parks during 1915-18. 
On the left hand side is a list of the societies 
and institutions in the neighborhood, and on the 

93For description of the duties of these committees and 
full constitution of this particular "council," cf. "Community 
Organization," C. E. Rainwater, Sociological Monograph No. 
13, Southern California Sociological Society, 1920. 



152 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 








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THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 155 

right hand side are the departments of city gov- 
ernment and societies outside the neighborhood, 
that were correlated with the ' 'council." In the 
center is the executive committee composed of 
the regular officers and the chairman and mem- 
bers of the "board of directors," or chairman of 
the standing committees. The director of the 
Park was elected annually to the office of chair- 
man of the board of directors. The committees 
were of three types: (1) those having to do 
with the maintenance of the "council;" (2) those 
directly at work on problems of social welfare; 
(3) those popularly regarded as having "recrea- 
tional" functions. 

"Neighborhood organization" in the public 
schools of Chicago enjoyed greater resources in 
securing financial support than were permitted in 
the parks ; but this advantage was offset by other 
facts, notably the character of the school plants 
which in comparison with the ' ' small parks ' ' were 
ill-adapted to community organization purposes. 
Notwithstanding this handicap there were thirty- 
nine "community centers," the official name by 
which the neighborhood organizations were 
known, conducted in schoolhouses during 1916, 
the mid-year of the "neighborhood organization" 
stage. Twelve were opened that season. The 
number of evenings per week during which the 
respective "centers" were conducted was two, 
and the maximum number of evenings for a sin- 
gle "center" was forty-five. Of the twelve new 



154 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

''centers," four were "self-supporting." These 
were Brentano, Lane, Sabin, and Norwood 
Park.''* The Armstrong, the oldest school com- 
munity center in the city schools, was already self- 
supporting. In these the Board of Education 
bore the expense of opening the building, involv- 
ing heat, light, janitor service, and salary of the 

s-'The structure and concept of the school "community 
centers" is disclosed by the description given of two in the 
Annual Report of the Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, for 
1916. 

Brentano. — The Brentano Neighborhood Association was 
formed with annual dues of one dollar per year for the mem- 
bers, the proceeds of the memberships to be used to finance 
the center. The neighborhood is one in which the same facil- 
ities persist from one generation to another. One man was 
principal of the school for nearly thirty years, and was prin- 
cipal when the center started. The possibilities were in the 
neighborhood. A leader was found, capable, willing, and able 
to give the time. He appointed chairmen of the various com- 
mittees who were enthusiastic and willing to work 

The programs for the two evenings (during which the 
center was conducted each week) were different: Monday 

night for work, and Friday night for play The only 

persons paid were the orchestra and the gymnasium instruc- 
tor; all others contributed their services. The attendance of 
young children was discouraged. 

Sabin. — In March, at the suggestion of the district super- 
intendent in charge, the principal tried to organize the com- 
munity for community center purposes. The neighborhood 
had not asked for the center; consequently it was necessary 
to get people together who were interested in such movements. 
Prom the head resident of Association House on West North 
Avenue the names were secured of persons who might help. 
.... Several meetings were called at the school, and among 
those who attended were representatives of Association House, 
the Juvenile Protective Association, the Eleanor Clubs, the 
Fifteenth Ward Civic League, the Jewish Educational Alli- 
ance, the Y. M. C. A., and the Northwestern Settlement. 

A free entertainment was planned at which a prominent 
judge made an address explaining the purposes in view. The 
assemblage thereupon formed a permanent organization called 
the Sabin Community Council, with a president, secretary, 

several vice-presidents, and a treasurer All the helpers 

were volunteers. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 155 

principal, together witli a small amount for 
games and otlier material, while all other expenses 
were met by the people participating. The aver- 
age expense to the school board in these centers 
was abont $16.00 for each night on which they 
were conducted. In the centers that were not 
organized for *' self-support" and in which the 
school board met all expenses, the cost was about 
$28.00 per night. Thus the ''self-supporting" 
centers bore 57% of their expenditures.^^ Com- 
menting on the progress made toward self-govern- 
ment and support, and indicating the significance 
attached to this feature of the community centers, 
the superintendent of schools''^ said: 

One of the most encourag-ing features which have at- 
tended the work is that of local organization and neighbor- 

^^Financial Report, Brentano Neighborhood Association, 
from January 1, 1916, to July 1, 1916. 

EECEIFTS 

From membership dues— 580 at $1.00 $580.00 

For advertising ads 22.00 

Benefit concert ticket sale 61.65 

1438 admission fees for dancing classes, i5c.... 215.70 

Total $879.35 

EXPENSES 

Gymnasium instructors $102.50 

Music for dances and gymnasium 176.00 

Rents to Board of Education* 110.00 

Paid lectures 57.25 

Printing 194.45 

Miscellaneous 194.10 

Total $834.30 

Balance on hand July 1, 1916 $ 45.05 

*This center used the school building on many evenings 
in addition to the two per week given free by the Board of 
Education. 

®6John D. Shoop, 62nd Annual Report Superintendent of 
Schools, Chicago, 1916, p. 1. 



156 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

hood assistance. Many of these centers are managed largely 
by officials who have been selected by the citizens of the 
community at large. Local autonomy is recognized as one of 
the important features of the community center management, 
and out of this plan of organization an enthusiasm has grown 
that augurs well for the future use of school buildings as a 
point at which the interests of the community will center. 

The development of the concept of ' * neighbor- 
hood organization" in Chicago led to that of the 
function of an ''overhead" organization as an 
indispensable adjunct to the local ' ' councils ' ' and 
"centers," evolving in connection with park field- 
houses and schools. Such an instrument, it was 
thought, would facilitate mutual aid between 
''neighborhood organizations," as in the provi- 
sion of speakers for forums, of talent for enter- 
tainments, and the exchange of experiences, and 
build up a functional relationship between the 
"councils" and the respective departments of city 
government and voluntary agencies immediately 
related to the organized neighborhoods; as for 
example, the department of health, or the asso- 
ciated charities, as well as the school and park 
boards. During the previous year many adjust- 
ments had become obviously necessary if the effi- 
cacy of the organized neighborhoods was to be 
realized and the scheme of democratic adminis- 
tration of the recreational institutions made 
successful. Consequently, in April, 1916, repre- 
sentatives of all the organized neighborhoods in 
Chicago met at the City Club and formed the Com- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 157 

munity Centers Conference. The function of this 
conference as defined in its constitution was •^'^ 

The discussion of community center organization, admin- 
istration and maintenance ; mutual aid in arranging programs 
and entertainments; recommendations to public and private 
agencies upon community center matters, and whatever else 
may be deemed advisable. 

This was the first attempt, as far as the writer 
is aware, to correlate both officials and private 
citizens, experts and laymen, in an "overhead" 
organization, with advisory rather than disciplin- 
ary power, designed to promote self-government 
and self-support through collective neighborhood 
effort as a method of procedure in the adminis- 
tration of play and recreation. It remained active 
until the war, when the community councils dis- 
placed it. 

In New York, the development of "neighbor- 
hood organization" as a decentralized and demo- 
cratic scheme of administration of play was 
organically related to the "recreation center" 
stage and made in connection with the small park 
and public school "social centers,"^® of which 
there were about sixty in 1914. The connecting 
link between the two stages of development was 
the Social Center Committee formed in 1912 as a 
result of the national conference on social centers 

^''Unpublished manuscript of the Constitution of the Com- 
munity Center Conference, Chicago. 

^^The term "social center," as employed in New York at 
that time, designated a juvenile recreation center rather than 
"a single, all-inclusive organized society" as defined by Ward. 
Cf. above. 



158 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

that met in Madison, Wisconsin, in October, 1911.^° 
The intermediary steps that led to the concept 
of structure and function characterizing the 
''neighborhood organization" stage included the 
following eight: (1) the conduct of self-sustain- 
ing public forums in some of the schools of Brook- 
lyn; (2) the attempt to demonstrate a complete 
''social center," "self-governing" and "self- 
supporting, ' ' at the McKinley School, Manhattan ; 
(3) the organization of "neighborhood associa- 
tions" in connection with the school social cen- 
ters as a method of promoting self-government 
and self-support, these "associations" being 
given the privilege of charging admission fees to 
entertainments held under their auspices and of 
raising money in other prescribed ways, such as, 
membership dues and the sale of articles at fairs, 
bazaars, etc.; (4) the holding of a "neighborhood 

^^The situation in New York at this time is described by 
John Collier in a monograph entitled "Community Organiza- 
tion and the Great Decision," which appeared in July, 1919, 
in the Reward Park Community Center Magazine. "Eight 
years ago (1911), New York possessed social settlements, half 
a dozen forums, two neighborhood betterment societies, and 
fifty-five public school recreation centers for boys and girls. 
This practically measured the extent of conscious community 
organization in a population of five million people. There was 
political organization; there were reform societies; there was 
organized labor, just becoming conscious of its world power 
and its community obligations; there were churches, benefit 
societies, secret societies, racial groups. There was an expen- 
diture of one hundred million dollars a year by New York City 
in educating, healing, and otherwise modifying human beings. 
New York was a labyrinth of labyrinths of special, exclusive, 
partial, non-social human organization. The great impersonal, 
economic process of factory, and bank, and store did give a 
certain unity to the people's life, but it was an unconscious 
unity, a unity of cogs, of braces and fly-wheels in an uncon- 
scious machine." 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 159 

workers institute" at the New York School of 
Philanthropy in June, 1914,"" of a seminary in 
"community center work" under the auspices of 
the New York Social Center Committee, in the 
spring of 1915, and the organization of the New 
York Training School for Community Workers 
with Luther H. Gulick as President, through the 
promotion of the People 's Institute in the autumn 
of 1915;"^ (5) the appointment by the board of 
education of a '"^ director of community centers" 
in the public schools;"^ (6) the creation of 
^ ' health districts ' ' in connection with the ' ' neigh- 
borhood associations" in the schools, where a 
representative of the health department of the 
city co-operated with the neighborhood society in 

looThis institute was conducted for "secretaries of neigh- 
borhood associations, leaders of school social centers and 
others." Among the topics discussed were "programs for clubs 
and classes and the general problem of neighborhood organ- 
ization .... and their relation to a city social program." 
This institute was "endorsed by the officers of the National 
Federation of Settlements and conducted in co-operation with 
the New York Association of Neighborhood Workers." Cf. 
Bulletin of New York School of Philanthropy (now the New 
York School of Social Work) for 1914-16, General Announce- 
ment, pp. 38-39. 

loiTjjg names of the consultants and lecturers for the 
second year included among others: Carol Aronovici, Edw. M. 
Barrows (Associate Director), John Collier (Director), M. M. 
Davis, Mrs. J. Gilmore Drayton (Ex. Secretary), Luther H. 
Gulick, Shelby Harrison, Joseph Lee, Percy MacKaye, C. A. 
Perry, Edw. F. Sanderson (Director People's Institute) and 
Mrs. V. G. Simkhovitch. The first year's attendance was lim- 
ited to 36, of whom 25 received diplomas, and 17 held posi- 
tions through the school year in neighborhood organization 
and related fields. — The New York Training School for Com- 
munity Workers, General Announcement, 1916-17, p. 2. 

io2This officer was Eugene C. Gibney, formerly a director 
of one of the public school recreation centers and an alumnus 
of the Training School for Community Workers. 



160 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

adapting the machinery of the dejjartment to their 
needs; (7) the organization of '^community clear- 
ing houses ' ' in connection with the school centers, 
where a citizen of the neighborhood might obtain 
any information concerning the municipal or phil- 
anthropic agencies accessible to him in solving a 
personal or group problem and to which he, too, 
might bring his own resources in some undertak- 
ing of common interest;^"' (8) the organization of 
''community councils," first on a ''personal" and 
later a "group unit" basis/"* 

About 1915 the term "community center" 
came into use, in New York, when referring to the 
agency or instrument through which "neighbor- 
hood organization" was being effected. During 
that year sixteen "community centers" were be- 
ing developed in schoolhouses alone, but within 
three years the number had increased to eighty- 
five, the work having been greatly propagated by 
the People's Institute. The concept of "neigh- 
borhood organization ' ' as formulated at the begin- 

lo^The community clearing liouse developed out of the 
research conducted by Mildred Taylor for the committee on 
the unadjusted child. It constituted a stepping stone between 
the community center and the community council, and was 
referred to by local workers as "the neighborhood gateway to 
all the resources of New York." "Here any citizen could find 
out how to get whatever he needed and how to offer his serv- 
ices for anything he wanted done. At this headquarters any 
agent of government or of private welfare work could call into 
service any other agent whose help was needed in any task of 
discovering and meeting human need. Thirteen city depart- 
ments joined in a quasi-official way to make effective the work 
of the community clearing house." — John Collier, supra. 

lo^For a definition of the sense in which the terms "per- 
sonal" and "group" unit are here used, cf. p. 163. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 161 

ning of this period is indicated by the following :^"" 
The neighborhood spirit finds expression through the 
community center. In general a community center is a place 
where the people of a locality may unite in their own way 
for the expression and enjoyment of whatever interests they 
have in common. It is founded on the schoolhouse, as this 
is apt to be the only effective building owned by the people 
together. It leads to the establishment .... of every human 
expression of a neighborhood 's interest in behalf of its people. 
The vital characteristic of a community center is its 
absolute democracy. Cities, or schools, or park boards, or 
private enterprise may evolve elaborate systems for benefiting 
the people, but these systems are developed externally and 
applied from the outside, while the community center reflects 
the spontaneous desires of the people of a neighborhood, is 
developed by the people themselves, and is maintained through 
their own leaders in their own way. 

It does not belong within the field of this report 
to write a complete history of community cen- 
ters in New York City ;^°^ the references here made 

io5]sjew York Training School for Community Workers, 
Announcement for 1916-17. 

i^'sif the reader is interested in this line of investigation, 
he is referred to the following sources as being among the most 
valuable: (a) Community Councils of New York City, State- 
ment of Work and Problems, prepared for the conference held 
at the home of Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip at Scarborough-on- 
Hudson, July 12, 1919; (&) "Community Organization and the 
Great Decision," John Collier, Seward Park Community Center 
Magazine, July, 1919; (c) Tioentieth Annual Report of the 
Superintendent of Schools of New York, 1918; (d) "Community 
Centers in Social Education," Papers and Proceedings, Ameri- 
can Sociological Society, Vol. XIII, pp. 111-16; (e) "Community 
Councils," Conference of Social Work, John Collier; (f) The 
Community Center, magazine of the National Community Cen- 
ter Association; {g) The Community Clearing House, Mildred 
Taylor, 1917, a pamphlet published at 227 East 22nd St., New 
York City; ih) "Why Community Organization," by John 
Collier, and his discussion of another paper by John L. Elliott 
on "Some Neighborhood Needs" at the National Social Unit 
Conference, Cincinnati, October 23-25, 1919. 



162 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

to them are limited to their relation to the play 
movement, that is, to the fact of the development 
within the play movement of a "community cen- 
ter" or ''neighborhood organization" stage, and 
to the community center as a phase of the play 
movement. A reciprocal relation existed between 
the two, and the field which they occupied in com- 
mon was that of "neighborhood organization" 
for the administration of play. The object here 
is, thus, merely to define the structure and the 
concept of the function of the "neighborhood 
organization" stage as it was manifested in New 
York between about 1915 and 1918. The facts of 
greatest importance in the discussion here are, 
accordingly, those relative to the method of pro- 
cedure followed in organizing neighborhoods for 
the administration of play. These involve (1) 
"neighborhood associations," (2) "community 
councils," (3) the "overhead" organization of 
the ' ' councils. ' ' While the ' ' community centers ' ' 
and "councils" had a greater significance than 
merely that of serving as a medium for the 
administration of play, in the sense in which the 
term is used in this study ,^°^ it remains true that 
they also had that meaning and were originated in 
play centers. 

An analysis of the development of the method 
or technique of "neighborhood organization" in 
New York City shows that the first attempts to 
organize neighborhoods consisted of the forma- 

^"TCf. pp. 4-8 above. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 163 

tion of a number of "neighborhood associations." 
These societies were "homogeneous groups "^^^ 
whose membership comprised persons, living in 
the vicinity of the schoolhouse in which the ' ' asso- 
ciation" was organized, who participated volun- 
tarily and independently of any connection that 
they may have had with a local institution or 
society. There was, thus, no functional union of 
the "neighborhood association" with local 
groups; no members were approved delegates of 
organizations already existing in the neighbor- 
hood or out of it. Now these "associations," it 
was observed, tended to disintegrate after the 
original enthusiasm that gave rise to them had 
ceased. A realization of this fact led in time to a 
reorganization of the "associations," whereby 
their control was vested in a "council" composed 
in part of delegates from each of the functional 
groups of the locality and the respective social 
agencies and departments of government active 
in that vicinity, and in part from the member- 
ship of the association at large. The functional 
groups were usually those interested in music, 
dramatics, games, athletics, dances, or labor union 
activities, while the social agencies embraced the 
philanthropic societies and the departments of 
government, those of health, education, correc- 
tion, and recreation. This was the origin of the 
"community councils;" and it is clear from the 

lo^John Collier, in discusion of paper, "Some Neighbor- 
hood Needs," read at National Social Unit Conference, Cincin- 
jiatl, October, 1919. 



164 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

nature of the groups correlated with the '' neigh- 
borhood organization" that the function of the 
"councils" was predominantly recreational. 
The "councils" were, primarily, instruments used 
in the decentralized and democratic administra- 
tion of play. They were "self-governing" as 
far as it was possible for an organization using 
public property to be so, and "self-supporting" 
as far as the additional expenses necessitated by 
their use of the schoolhouse were involved. 
Membership dues, admission fees, and the sale 
of commodities were the principal sources of their 
financial income, no public appropriations being 
made for their maintenance after the second year. 
The application of the method of "self-gov- 
ernment" and "self-support" of "community 
councils," as the neighborhood organizations 
were then called, logically led, in New York as it 
had done previously in Chicago, to a sequence of 
attempts in "overhead" organization for the pro- 
motion of greater efficiency in the work of the 
local "councils." Service, not control, was the 
object, and the correlation of programs and 
money getting activities was the method of the 
"overhead" organization experiments. The first 
step in this direction was the formation of the 
"League of Neighborhood School Centers" after 
a series of meetings beginning on February 8, 
1917. The objects of this league, as outlined in 
its constitution were as follows: 

(a) To form a closer union between Recreation and Com- 
munity Centers, (b) To make tbe school the People's Club. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 165 

(c) To develop the Neighborhood School Centers to their 
maximum of service and efficiency by co-operative treatment 
of the following: (1) community choruses, orchestras, and 
concerts, (2) motion pictures, (3) dramatic performances, 
(4) athletics, (5) forums, (6) clubs, (7) dances, (8) game 
and reading rooms, (9) such other activities as may develop. 

(d) To arrange for co-operation between the centers in the 
following manner: (1) by arranging co-operative money 
raising activities, (2) by gathering information regarding 
availability of talent and arranging for the interchange of 
same, (3) by arranging athletic meets, (4) by arranging for 
the interchange of equipment, (5) by the publication of a 
periodical, and arranging for any other desirable publicity. 

(e) To co-operate with the Council of Community Center 
workers to the end of securing their advice and assistance.^°^ 

Subsequently, ^'district co-operative leagues" 
were formed, the chairmen of the respective dis- 
trict leagues constituting the executive committee 
of the League of Neighborhood School Centers. 
Each local center was represented by a delegate 
in the district league, of which there were eleven 
in 1918."° On July 1, 1919, "A City Parliament 
of Councils" was formed, a further elaboration 
of ''overhead" organization."^ 

'^^^ Twentieth Annual Report of Superintendent of Schools, 
New York City, 1918, p. 79. 

^As stated above, by 1918 the term "community council" 
had displaced tliat of "community center" as the name by 
which the organized neighborhood was known. Consequently, 
as a result of both that change and the development of "com- 
munity councils" throughout the nation during the second 
year of the participation of the United States in the Great 
War, the method of "overhead" organization was further 
elaborated. The work of the "councils" organized in response 
to the appeal of the Council of National Defense (of which 
there were 180,000 developing by the time the war ceased) 



166 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

These are the essential facts relative to the 
development of ''neighborhood organization" as 
a method of administering play in New York 
City that received greatest emphasis about 
1915-18. 

In Philadelphia, ' ' advisory councils ' ' were de- 
veloped in connection with the ' ' recreation parks ' ' 
that offered all-year facilities for play. These 
"councils" were composed of adults, either dele- 
gates or officers of the respective neighborhood 
clubs using the indoor recreation centers. They 
were identical in structure with those in the 
school centers in New York, although not as large, 
being composed of representatives of the func- 
tional groups of the neighborhoods about the 
parks. No "overhead" organization was at- 
tempted by them, and their self-supporting activi- 
ties were limited as were the councils organized 
in connection with the Chicago parks analyzed 
above, yet they were designed to provide "local 
self-government""^ in the administration of play. 



was primarily tliat necessitated by certain war emergencies, 
and for this work special "overhead" organization had been 
provided. After the war, peace conditions necessitated a re- 
organization, and on July 1, 1919, "A City Parliament of Com- 
munity Councils" with a co-ordinate group of advisory com- 
mittees was organized. The objects of the "parliament" were 
similar to those of the "league," and the committees were 
those on health, recreation, education, and industrial relations. 
"2in the annual report of the Board of Recreation of 
Philadelphia for 1913, on p. 26, the following statement is made 
concerning these "councils": The Board of Recreation is 
anixous to provide in the evening for those who work by day 
in factory, workshop, and office. The shower baths and swim- 
ming pool are more used by adults at night. The grounds are 
electric lighted and many daylight games are played at night 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 167 

In Cincinnati, the most unique experiment in 
self-government and self-support of play facili- 
ties was made in connection with the work of 
the National Social Unit Organization in the Mo- 
hawk-Brighton District, during 1916-19/^^ A 
statement of the details of this experiment is 
(beyond the purpose of this report, but it is sig- 
nificant that one of the seven groups represented 
by elected delegates in the ''occupational coun- 
cil" was that of the "recreational workers" of 
the district in which the experiment was under- 
taken. Self-support and self-government were 
among the distinctive traits of the ''social unit" 
plan. 

In rural communities, there was a growing 
consciousness, about 1915, "that people must 
work together in these local groups if they seek 
the best results.""* In some respects, indeed, 
provision for play, in both the open country and 
the village, was from the first more democratic 
than that of the cities; that is, more self-govern- 



.... Among older patrons, the club motive is strong. The 
officers of each club form a Playground Council which prom- 
ises to be a governing body of importance. 

In the report of 1914, p. 29, is inserted a full page picture 
of one of the "advisory councils" in session. 

iispor further information concerning the National Social 
Unit Organization, its structure, history, and function, con- 
sult their Bulletins, Nos. 1, 2, 2a, 3, 4, and the papers read at 
the National Social Unit Conference, Cincinnati, October 23-25, 
1919. 

ii^Kenyon L. Butterfield, In his Introduction to MoMUz- 
ing the Rural Community, by E. L. Morgan, Massachusetts 
Agricultural College Bulletin, No. 23, September, 1918. 



1G8 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

ing and self-sustaining.^^^ There were fewer insti- 
tutions that attempted to give service to the peo- 
ple, and more that worked with them. The ''rural 
life" movement, for example, universally inaug- 
urated activities to be undertaken by the people, 
such as "community drama" and "community 
music" developed conspicuously in Wisconsin, 
North Dakota, and Kansas. ""^ Similar events oc- 
cured in West Virginia during 1913-15, when at 
the suggestion of the state superintendent of 
schools, one thousand rural teachers volunteered 
to undertake the organization of "social centers" 
of a democratic type in their school buildings. 
The assistant superintendent prepared a hand- 
book for their use in that work."^ 

But these earlier attempts to provide for play 
in rural communities were, with possibly only 
one exception,^^^ of the "homogeneous group" 
type like the early "neighborhood associations" 
formed in New York,"'' that is, a voluntary society 

ii'^C. J. Galpin, "Rural Social Centers in Wisconsin," Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, 
No. 234; and State Superintendent of Schools, Wisconsin, Re- 
port of the Sub-Committee of the Committee of Fifteen. Bulle- 
tin No. 18. 

"^Cf. Peter W. Dykema, "Tlie Spread of the Community 
Music Idea," The Annals. 1916, pp. 218-23; and "Community 
Music and Drama," University of Wisconsin, Extension Divi- 
sion Bulletin, General Series. No. 638, 1917. 

ii^L. J. Hanifan, Community Social Gatherings at Rural 
Schoolhouses. 

iisThe West Newbury Federation for Rural Progress, West 
Newbury, Essex County, Mass., organized in the spring of 
1909. "It was composed of representatives of some dozen or- 
ganizations and agencies of the town, including the church, 
the school committee, and two granges." Cf. E. L. Morgan, 
Mobilizing the Rural Comynunity, p. 7. 

ii^Cf. John Collier, supra. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 169 

performing a definite and limited function, as a 
*' school improvement club" or a "community 
house association," or an institution that under- 
took a new service, as a rural church organizing 
community music, or a township building a com- 
munity house. An intermediate step in the devel- 
opment of the concept of "neighborhood organi- 
zation" in rural districts was the formation of 
a more complex organization with an executive 
committee consisting of the president, secretary, 
treasurer, and chairman of the respective stand- 
ing committees. This bridged the distance be- 
tween the simple homogeneous group formed for 
a single purpose and the heterogeneous one com- 
posed of representatives of existing institutions 
who formed a "community council." The clear- 
est anaylsis of this transitional type of rural or- 
ganization was possibly that of Carver,^^" who 
proposed an executive committee as described, 
and two groups of standing committees; the one 
* * business, ' ' and the other, ' ' social. ' ' The former 
comprised "farm production," "marketing," 
"farm supplies," "credit," and "communica- 
tion," that is, roads and telephones; the latter, 
"education," "sanitation," "recreation," "beau- 
tification," and "home economics." Concerning 
this scheme, however, he said: 

No single plan of organization will suit all communities. 
.... The plan here presented is intended only as a general 

i2ocf. T. N. Carver, "The Organization of a Rural Com- 
munity," U. 8. Dept. of Agriculture, Yearbook for 1914, pp. 
89-138. 



170 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

guide, to be followed so far as it seems to meet the needs of 
any community which is studying the problem of organiza- 
tion 

It is not a plan for the * ' uplifting ' ' of the farmer. The 
farmers are quite capable of taking care of themselves, but 
they have not yet taken up the work of organized self-help as 
completely as could be desired. 

The function of the '^ recreation " committee 
in this plan of rural organization was outlined 
as follows : 

To promote wholesome sports adapted to rural communi- 
ties, such as swimming, horseback riding, "hiking" games, 
for old and young, neighborhood fairs. 

To promote rural festivities combining threshing, husk- 
ing, cotton picking, and other seasonal work with social rec- 
reation. 

To promote neighborhood choral clubs, annual musical 
events by township, county, and state. 

To promote playgrounds, parks, and neighborhood cen- 
ters. - 

During the two or three years preceding 1918, 
a limited number of "community councils" were 
formed in country-side and "town" districts. 
These "councils" consisted of a small member- 
ship of delegates, usually less than a score, chosen 
by their respective institutions and societies 
which generally included the church, the grange, 
the county Y. M. C. A., the parent-teacher asso- 
ciation, the boy scouts, the camp fire girls. These 
"joint-committees," as they were also called, 
usually made a more or less thorough survey of 
their community and outlined a program of devel- 
opment extending over a period of from three to 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 171 

five years. Provision for play was always a fea- 
ture of the work of the ' ' councils ' ' and one which 
occupied much of its attention. Massachusetts 
was one of the first states in which this plan was 
adopted on a wide scale.^^^ In support of it, a 
community advisor wrote, after six years of ex- 
perience with " councils : "^^^ 

It has seemed better to unite existing groups for work 
than to bring about something new which would be an addi- 
tional burden to an already overloaded community. The 
council leads community committees in a thorough study of 
the town, and in the working out of a three to five year plan 
or program of town^^s development, made up of special 
projects in farm production, farm business, conservation, 
boys' and girls' interests, and community life, that is, 
education, the home, public health, civic affairs, recreation, 
transportation, etc. The carrying out of this program is done 
by the local organizations co-operating through the council. 

A natural outgrowth of ''neighborhood organi- 
zation" in many rural communities was the acqui- 
sition of a building, a "community house," for 
recreational and other collective uses. These in- 
door community plants were usually obtained by 
the purchase and remodeling of existing struc- 
tures, but in some instances by construction, as 
in Kansas where a state law permitted town- 
ships to vote bonds not to exceed five thousand 
dollars for that purpose.^^* A few were donated. 

121E. L. Morgan, Mobilizing a Rural Community, Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College Bulletin, No. 23. 

i23The word "town" as here used is equivalent to "com- 
munity," meaning the New England "town" or township. 

124W. C. Nason and C. W. Thompson, "Rural Community 
Buildings in the United States," United States Department of 
Agriculture, Bulletin No. 825, p. 29. 



172 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The finances necessary for either purchase or 
construction, when not procured by donation or 
a bond issue, were raised by the formation of 
stock companies, by subscriptions, by admission 
fees to entertainments, and by membership fees, 
and in part by rentals after the operation of the 
plant had begun. By 1918 community buildings 
had been provided in one or more rural districts 
in forty-one states. During 1915-18, ninety 
buildings such as these were acquired either by 
purchase or construction, an average of thirty 
per year. 

The simplest of these buildings, often found 
in the open country, contained an auditorium with 
movable seats so that it might be transformed 
into a dining room, a gymnasium, or dance hall, 
a stage, and a kitchen, each equipped with the 
usual apparatus. In the smaller towns there were 
often in addition to these facilities, a library, a 
reading room, a game room, a woman's rest room, 
and clubrooms; in county seats and the larger 
towns, often an office, cafe, gymnasium, billiard 
room, agriculture exhibit room, and headquarters 
for the agricultural agent, visiting nurse, and sec- 
retary of the commercial club. From an analysis 
of the structure of these plants, it is clear that 
their use was largely that of play. 

These buildings have become the centers of their com- 
munities for recreational, gymnastic, athletic, social, and wel- 
fare work, and often for political, co-operative business, and 
religious work.^^^ 

125W. C. Nason and C. W. Thompson, op. cit., p. 5. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 1(73 

111 some rural communities, efforts toward 
"neighborhood organization" resulted in the crea- 
tion of a new public office: the "community sec- 
retary. "^^^ The first one was elected in Osseo, 
Wisconsin, June 20, 1914, when the school princi- 
pal was chosen to be "civic secretary"^" as well 
as school head, with an increase of one-third of 
his former salary. Sauk City and Neillsville, both 
in Wisconsin, soon followed the example of Osseo. 
Later several rural communities in Massachusetts 
adopted the plan, although not making use of 
the heads of the local schools in all cases. Under 
the personal leadership of the "community secre- 
taries," the local institutions and associations 
were correlated into a functional and dynamic 
whole. The control and support of play was a 
phase of the task of the "community secretary," 
constituting at least fifty per cent of his work, 
and involving the management of the social cen- 
ter and the public forum, the making out of a 
calendar of local meetings and events, the direct- 
ing of community surveys, and the charting of 
community needs. 

The employment of the "community secre- 
tary" in the plan of rural organization was a 
development rather than a disavowal of the con- 

i26Various titles were employed in designating the office. 
"Civic secretary," "chairman of the board of directors," "com- 
munity advisor," and "community secretary" were all in use 
at first, but the last title finally displaced the others. 

^-''E. J. Ward, "The Greatest Office in Any Community," 
LaFollette's Magazine, September 5, 1914; and Graham Taylor, 
"A Community Secretary," National Municipal Review, April, 
1915. 



174 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

cept of "neighborhood organization." It was 
followed as readily by local communities in which 
"councils" were already active as by others, for 
it had become evident that someone must give a 
considerable amount of time and thought to a 
given enterprise undertaken by any community 
if it were to terminate successfully. 

As stated by an experienced worker, a com- 
munity adviser, himself :^^^ 

In the past we have held to the idea that one of the 
greatest needs was to discover and train local people to 
assume local responsibilities. While our belief on this point 
has not changed, still it has become apparent that the aver- 
age farmer will not continue to give time to matters of busi- 
ness routine or organization detail which belong to the entire 
community. The future is going to see our communities do- 
ing collectively a good many things that they have never done 
before. This will come merely because it is the most efficient 
way of getting those things done which we have in common. 
This need, which is everywhere apparent, leads to the sug- 
gestion that someone be officially designated and maintained 
by taxation as community secretary. The work he could do 
would be no mean task. 

While no form of "overhead" organization of 
"rural councils" or "neighborhood associations" 
was developed by the initiative of these groups, 
an equivalent aid in their administration was pro- 
vided by both federal and state agencies. Ex- 
amples of the former were the U. S. Departments 
of Agriculture and the Interior; of the latter, 
the state superintendents of instruction, the ex- 
tension departments of state universities, the 

i-^E. L. Morgan, supra. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 175 

state boards of agriculture, the agricultural and 
normal schools. In some instances county-wide 
organization through the ''county farm adviser" 
or the county Y. M. C. A. was effected.^^^ A fre- 
quent method of extending assistance and ex- 
changing counsel was by way of a "conference." 
The "A. B. C. Conferences""" of Illinois, were 
typical examples. The first was a state conven- 
tion, held at the State University, June 20-22, 
1916. Later, district and local conferences were 
held. Play and recreation was always a topic for 
discussion at these meetings, and their function 
was twofold: to define the method of community 
organization, and to interest communities in 
accepting the responsibility of solving their local 
problems. The question was not whether the peo- 
ple could be entrusted with power, but how they 
could be induced to take it, to accept responsibility 
for the local welfare. The "neighborhood organi- 
zation" stage of the play movement, then, was 
never, in city or in country, an expression of 
unrest in rebellion to constituted authority; on 
the contrary, it was from the first a method of 
supplementing governmental organization. In 
the language of one of the earliest "civic secre- 
taries," in 1914, when speaking of the function of 
his office :^^^ 

^^^Op. cit., cf. pp. 48-54 for an extensive list of sources of 

aid to local councils, classified according to the respective 

projects. 

i30The letters "A. B. C." signify "A Better Community." 
131N. T. Buckley, elected at Sauk City, Wisconsin, June, 

1914. Cf. Charles Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, 1916, 

pp. 226-27. 



176 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

With .this work recognized and remunerated as public 
service ; with its administration organized and centered in the 
State Superintendent's oflBee in the Capitol; and with the 
Bureau of Social Center Development and the other Bureaus 
of the Extension Division as ready sources of suggestions, 
material for discussion, speakers, and motion picture films, 
I prophesy that the people of Wisconsin will be equipped to 
get three times the value they have been getting out of their 
investment in educational equipment — and incidentally will 
have in their hands the machinery for that genuine home rule 
which is democracy. 

And in the words of another, who developed 
one of the first successful community centers in 
New York, the organized neighborhood "is a 
microcosm of democratic society :^^^ 

In developing self-governed clubs under the supervision 
of qualified leaders we are developing two of the essential 
attributes of citizenship, respect for authority and obedience 

to the law The boy or girl that is affiliated afterwards 

grows to manhood and womanhood as a member of a political 
club, a civic club, or a neighborhood association with a defi- 
nite purpose of benefiting the community. It is the difference 
between the solitary and the social. The former becomes an 
adult lacking interest in public affairs, the latter emerges into 
citizenship with a keen desire to be a dynamic and loyal mem- 
ber of the nation. 

The ''neighborhood organization" stage of 
the play movement has now been analyzed. It has 
been found that its distinctive features were: 
(1) an emphasis upon ''self-government" and 
"self-support" of play activities in a decentral- 
ized scheme of administration in order that the 
economic resources of government might be made 

13-Eugene C. Gibney, Twentieth Annual Report of Sicperin- 
tendent of Schools, New York, 1918, pp. 12-13. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 177 

sufficient for adequate provision of facilities in 
all communities; (2) the selection of the ''neigh- 
borhood" or "local community" in the place of 
city or county as the field of decentralized con- 
trol and support of the play activities of the peo- 
ple; (3) the development first of "neighborhood 
associations" designed to carry out given projects 
of common interest, and second of "community 
councils" to correlate local institutions into a 
dynamic whole, functionally related to both phil- 
anthropic agencies and departments of govern- 
ment; (4) the utilization of the energies of the 
residents of local communities in the control and 
support of definite projects under the leadership 
of trained persons, "community secretaries," 
elected and employed by the people involved; (5) 
the designation of schoolhouses, fieldhouses, and 
"community houses," designed especially for 
play uses, as meeting places or "centers" of 
the common interest of which neighborhoods and 
"little communities" were becoming conscious; 
(6) the grant to neighborhood groups using pub- 
lic property of the right to charge admission, col- 
lect dues, and solicit funds for the support of 
community projects; (7) the evolution in some 
localities of elaborate schemes of "overhead" 
organization for securing co-operation between 
"councils" and "associations" in handling money 
getting devices, exchange of talent, and control 
of athletic and literary competitions, and in other 
districts, of extensive efforts on the part of gov- 



178 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

ernment and philanthropy to encourage local 
autonomy in the solution of community problems ; 
(9) the incorporation in the field of activities of 
the play movement of certain phases of the "com- 
munity center," "country life," and similar 
movements, involving given projects of common 
interest to the neighborhood group; (10) the co- 
operation of social workers and students of social 
science in defining the concept of the function 
and the structure of the play movement, resulting 
in the acceptance of less sentimental and more 
" socio-rational " objectives, as the substitution of 
autonomy for philanthropy, both public and pri- 
vate, in the support and control of facilities for 
play. 

G. The '^ community service" stage, since 
about 1918. The mobilization of the military and 
naval forces of the United States at the beginning 
of our participation in the Great War gave rise to 
a changed social situation with respect to play. 
New problems arose in every community adjacent 
to army cantonments or naval bases and training 
stations, and in those industrial centers in which 
war supplies were being produced on an extensive 
scale. In some of these industrial districts the 
population increased 50 to 100 per cent in a few 
weeks, and consequently living conditions were 
so abnormal for many new arrivals that the labor 
turnover amounted for a time to 50 per cent per 
month ; while in the towns and cities near the can- 
tonments the presence of large numbers of sol- 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 179 

diers, sailors, and marines flocking in ''on leave'* 
created a demand for larger and more appro- 
priate facilities for leisure time activities than 
existed in any community, even New York. Com- 
mercialized amusements seized the opportunity 
for exploitation, but they were soon opposed by 
a new adjustment provided by the play movement, 
the organization of wholesome recreation under 
the leadership of what was first called both ' ' war 
camp" and ''war workers' " community service. 
The Playground and Recreation Association of 
America proposed to the Council of National De- 
fense that their experience of twelve years and 
the thousands of trained play leaders engaged in 
administering facilities in other communities be 
recruited for service in making an adjustment to 
the social situation in the "war camp" and 
"war worker" communities. The suggestion was 
accepted; the Army and Navy Departments ap- 
proved and "W. C. C. S."^^"^ was organized. The 
president and the secretary of the Playground 
and Eecreation Association of America became 
corresponding officers in "War Camp Community 
Service. ' ' 

The method of procedure employed by War 
Camp Community Service was essentially that of 
the "neighborhood organization" stage of the 
play movement, but through the emotional 

i33"w. C. C. S." were the letters generally used during 
1918 to designate War Camp Community Service. Its func- 
tion was related to recreation in communities near the camps 
and training stations, as that of the Y. M. C. A. to the recrea- 
tional events inside the camps. 



180 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

intensity of the war emergency that medium was 
raised to the nth. power of efficiency. As stated 
by one writer:'"* 

As War Camp Community Service conceived the prob- 
lem, it could not be solved by any outside agency, no matter 
how great or how well organized. It had to be met by the 
communities themselves. W. C. C. S. could only give the 
benefit of its advice, could only point the way. The work 
had to be done through the proper co-ordination of the latent 
recreational facilities of each camp town and the develop- 
ment by the citizens themselves of new facilities where, as in 
nearly every ease, the existing facilities were inadequate. 

It was, as W. C. C. S. visioned it, a problem of neigh- 
borliness. 

That's what they (the soldiers and sailors) got, in so far 
as the earnest effort of thousands and thousands of hos- 
pitable people in the camp towns all over the United States 
could see that they got such home welcomes. There was no 
coddling, no charity, no philanthropy in the formal sense, no 
institutional feeling. The idea was that these folks were 
entertaining the neighbors' boys. 

Before the signing of the armistice *'War 
Camp Community Service" had organized the 
social and recreational resources of six hundred 
and four communities near the cantonments for 
the benefit of the military and naval forces of 
the nation; and about fifty districts in which war 
industries were being carried on, of which Bethle- 
hem, Chester, and Erie, Pennsylvania, were typi- 
cal examples. A force of 2,700 trained workers 
was employed and a volunteer staff of 60,000 addi- 

i34John R. Colter, "The Town That Found Itself," Com- 
munity Service (Incorporated), Bulletin No. 7, 1919, pp. 13-14. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 181 

tional leaders of given activities and committee- 
men besides those who received soldiers and 
sailors in their homes."^ The field of activities 
involved practically all the types of play that had 
been previously developed by the play movement 
and many new games and stunts arranged to 
enable large numbers to participate at one time, 
''mass games, "^^'^ as well as a number of occu- 
pations for convalescents in hospitals. Among 
the distinctive types of activities were community 
singing, pageants, dances, block parties, athletic 
meets, motion pictures, artist recitals, game 
rooms, and home hospitality. Thus ''War Camp 
Community Service ' ' was developed during 1918^^^ 
as a means of conserving the health and morale 
of the fighting forces of the nation. 

In the attempt to extend hospitality to the 
armed forces of the nation, the respective com- 
munities in which "War Camp Community Serv- 
ice" operated for the brief season of actual 
hostilities and the shorter period of demobilization 
became conscious, for the first time in many in- 
stances, of the function of organized recreation 
administered by a self-governing and self-support- 
ing method. While seeking to serve others they 

i35"Community Service," Community Service (Incor- 
porated), Bulletin No. 2, p. 3, 1919. 

136 cf. Edna Geister, Ice Breakers (a book of games and 
stunts for social gatherings), Women's Press; Community 
Recreation, International Com. Y. M. C. A., compiled by Geo. 
C. Draper; and Neva L. Boyd, Hospital and Bedside Games, 
Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. 

i37"w. C. C. S.— Its First Year," TTie Playground, Vol. 
XII, pp. 273 ff. 



182 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

had gained somefhing new for themselves, for 
many of these communities had not yet adopted 
the plan of '' neighborhood organization" worked 
out during the preceding three years. 

Hence, the popular demand was made that 
' * community service ' ' be continued with the return 
of peace, adapting its spirit and technique to con- 
ditions of the reconstruction period. In addition 
to this request other factors emphasized the value 
of an agency such as ''community service" in 
peace as well as war: (1) there was the need of 
Americanization, and ' ' community service ' ' was a 
valuable method for achieving it; (2) the greater 
demand for rural recreation, since many of the 
soldiers and sailors were returning to rural 
homes; (3) the large place left vacant in the social 
life of many communities by the abolition of the 
saloon; (4) the increase in leisure time as a 
result of "daylight saving" and shorter working 
hours in industry; (5) the necessity for greater 
attention to the physical development of the peo- 
ple as disclosed by the high percentages of rejec- 
tions for physical unfitness by draft boards.^^' 
To aid communities, both urban and rural, in solv- 
ing these five problems during the reconstruction 
period, ''Community Service, Incorporated," was 
organized in 1919, with general offices at 1 Madi- 
son Avenue, New York City."'' A fund of two 

^^^ Community Service (Incorporated), Bulletin No. 2, p. 2, 
1919. 

i3^Cf. Community Service (Incorporated), Bulletin No. 1, 
1919, for statement of names of officers, committees, board of 
directors, and members of the "corporation." 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 183 

million dollars was secured with which to start 
the work as soon as possible in about four hun- 
dred communities, selected chiefly from those in 
which "War Camp Community Service" had 
operated/*" Thus, "Community Service, Incor- 
porated," is the successor to "War Camp Com- 
munity Service" as it in turn was an outgrowth 
of the Playground and Recreation Association of 
America. The personnel of the central office 
remains practically unchanged.^*^ An excellent 
formulation of the concept of the structure and 
the function of "community service" is contained 
in the following sentence from one of their bulle- 
tins: 

Community Service is the medium through which the 
residents of a community get together and truly become mem- 
bers of the community, with a consequent real interest in 
community welfare, prosperity, and stability. 

According to this statement, the "community 
service" stage of the play movement has much 
in common with that of "neighborhood organiza- 
tion." In many instances the application of the 
former involves the latter, as indicated by the 
following : 

The neighborhood has been recognized as an essential 
social unit not only through the school centers and local 
clubs, but by block parties, which are being made a specialty 
in Philadelphia and elsewhere. 

"°Cf. op. cit., for statement of budget of Community Serv- 
ice (Incorporated), for the first year, 1919. 

i^iJoseph Lee and Howard S. Braucher remain president 
and secretary, respectively, of both the Playground and Recre- 
ational Association of America, and Community Service, Incor- 
porated. 



184 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

But, while directed from a national headquar- 
ters and standpoint, the details of its application 
remain optional with the local communities and 
involve some form of group organization of the 
leisure pursuits of the people of those communi- 
ties. To quote from their own literature again."^ 

Community Service operates nationally, applies itself 
locally, and thinks in terms of leisure time. 

The method of procedure followed by ''Com- 
munity Service" is democratic and constructive. 
The fund of two million dollars was designed only 
for use in self-supporting and self-governing 
"community recreation" in about four hundred 
localities, allowing about $5,000 to each for the 
first year. And it was expected that for every 
dollar thus expended, at least ten would be spent 
by the local communities in support of the work 
thus inaugurated."^ As outlined in 1919: 

The method of work will be to send to each city a com- 
munity organizer to form a representative committee of citi- 
zens and start the work. In some cases a song leader or some 
other specialist may also be provided to start a special 
activity, but always the aim will be to make the people 
feel that the problem is their own problem and to hand the 
work over to them as soon as possible. A constant feature 
will be the training of volunteers to act as song leaders, as 
teachers of dramatics, or directors of playgrounds or school 
centers, as chaperones at dances, or to help in other kinds of 
work 

i*2w. F. Edwards, "Community Service, A Positive Force 
in Reconstruction," Community Service (Incorporated), Bulle- 
tin No. 1, p. 4, 1919. 

I'^^Cf. Community Service (Incorporated), Bulletin No. 2, 
p. 7, 1919. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 18o 

The appeal in each community is made to all the people, 
not as rich or poor, as native or of foreign origin, but as 

citizens 

The aim .... will be not to impose a cut-and-dried 
program from without, but to draw out the strength that is 
in the people and to make them conscious and efficient direc- 
tors of their own affairs. 

The field of activities promoted by ''com- 
munity service" comprises an extensive list of 
wholesome leisure pursuits^** with emphasis upon 
the following types : 

Physical: aquatics, athletics, basket-ball, boat- 
ing, boxing, camping, field-days, folk-dancing, 
games, hikes, meets, skating, soccer, street play, 
stunts, tournaments. 

Social: banquets, block parties, candy pulls, 
clubs, community centers, dances, game rooms, 
home hospitality, motion pictures, spelling-bees. 

Aesthetic: concerts, choruses, dramatics, festi- 
vals, oratorios, pageants, recitals, "sings." 

Constructive: gardening, pets, sand modeling, 
sloyd, sewing. 

Civic: Americanization, community councils, 
community days, community Christmas trees, co- 
operative enterprises, "dry saloons," forums, 
mass meetings, night schools, lectures, surveys, 
welfare exhibits, vacation homes for working girls. 

The degree of success attained to date is indi- 
cated by the following events of the past two 
years. On May 1, 1920, the report of the first 
year of "Community Service, Incorporated," 

i^^Cf. Community Recreational Activities, pamphlet by- 
Playground and Recreation Association of America, 1920. 



186 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

showed that sixty-five cities had raised a local 
budget and had started work, the total amount 
subscribed during the six months preceding being 
$700,000, while, since the armistice $27,521,000 
has been raTsed or pledged for "memorial com- 
munity buildings." At the present writing 129 
cities have raised local budgets for the support 
of "community service." These figures by no 
means represent the total expenditures of the play 
movement during the past two years. The empha- 
sis upon the community function greatly aided 
public appropriations for play facilities and 
"community service" was in turn benefited by 
them.^*^ 

The war has had its effect on recreation, not only through 
emphasizing the community values involved, but also in the 
development of the municipal recreation movement which for 
years has slowly but surely been gaining ground in American 
communities and which Community Service, Incorporated, 
seeks to strengthen and enlarge. 

Some of the more conspicuous examples of an 
advance in public provision for play in correlation 
with community recreation are the following: (1) 
that the total number of playgrounds and recrea- 
tion centers publicly maintained decreased only 
1.8 per cent during the year 1918 in spite of the 
war demands, while during that same period the 
number of year-round workers increased 174 per 
cent; (2) that a $10,000,000 bond issue was author- 
ized by Detroit, and $500,000 by Portland for 

^*5Abbie Condit, "Recreation," Avierican Yearbook, for 
1920. 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 187 

small parks and playgrounds; (3) that public 
appropriations for play were doubled by Memphis, 
Milwaukee, Newton, Mass., and Sacramento, Cali- 
fornia; (4) that many gifts were made to public 
recreation, such as the $2,500,000 Hannan Memo- 
rial Hall for music in Detroit, a $10,000 memorial 
playground in Sacramento, a forty-acre park in 
Cleveland, and a seventeen-acre tract in Kala- 
mazoo, Michigan; (5) that state legislation was 
enacted in behalf of both public and community 
recreation, as the Pennsylvania law which requires 
boards of education throughout the state to make 
their school plants available for recreational use 
upon petition by a given per cent of the adult 
residents of the community, and the Michigan law 
known as "An Act Creating a Community Coun- 
cil Commission, County Community Boards and 
Community Councils" by which an attempt is 
made to promote the play and community inter- 
ests of the state by a board of 26 to whom the 
county commissions and local councils are 
responsible. The Michigan law was an outgrowth 
of the work of the Councils of National Defense 
organized during the war and parallels the work 
of "community service." 

The concept of the structure and function of 
the play movement at the present time, the ' ' com- 
munity service" stage, involves emphasis upon 
the following features: (1) great enthusiasm for 
neighborliness, an after-glow of the war spirit; 
(2) financial support for propaganda, in the form 



188 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

of a huge budget; (3) great confidence on the 
part of the public in the practicahty of its method 
as a result of the success achieved in six hundred 
communities during the war; (4) the equivalent 
of a voluntary national "overhead organization" 
in the function of the national office of ''Com- 
munity Service, Incorporated;" (5) an effectual 
correlation of the "neighborhood" with the 
"community" in the control and support of a 
democratic plan of administration of play, as ex- 
emplified in "music weeks," "community days," 
"holiday celebrations," "community singing," 
"community drama" and "pageantry;" (6) 
facilities for educating the public in the use of 
leisure, as provided by the local office of "com- 
munity service" whose staff is more engaged in 
the work of co-operating with existing institutions 
and agencies, in training play leaders, in discov- 
ering unused resources and developing facilities 
where none exists than in merely administering 
more efficiently given plants, such as school or 
park "recreation centers;" (7) the formation of 
"advisory councils," in the place of the former 
type of "local overhead organization," composed 
of representatives of all institutions and organi- 
zations attempting social work in the local com- 
munity, such as the Knights of Columbus, Council 
of Defense, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., Boy 
Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Council of Churches, 
Playground Association or Department, Women's 
Clubs, W. C. T. U., Parent-Teacher Association, 



THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 189 

and Industrial Welfare Employment Depart- 
ments; (8) the conduct of intensive training 
courses for community recreation leaders under 
the initiative of the local organization of "com- 
munity service" in co-operation with existing 
institutions, such as a musical college or dramatic 
league, the first one being offered in Washington, 
D. C, during 1918;"*' (9) the aiding of financial 
campaigns, the voting of bond issues, and the 
authorization of public appropriations for the pur- 
chase and equipment of sites for play uses; (10) 
the development of unutilized opportunities for 
jwholesome play by all ages and throughout the 
year, as noon-hour ''sings" in factories, street 
play, holiday celebrations. In other respects the 
''community service" stage utilizes whatever may 
be thought appropriate to the local situation from 
the technique of the six preceding stages of the 
play movement. 

With this survey of the recent and current 
emphasis upon "community service" in the 
administration of play, the present analysis of 
the respective stages of the play movement in the 

i^^Concerning the school at Washington, D. C, Bulletin 
No. 2 of Community Service (Incorporated), states: This is a 
school for recreation leaders. Here are taught as quickly as 
possible the rudiments of physical recreation, social recrea- 
tion, community drama, and community singing. The students 
learn not only how to present plays, operas, and pageants, but 
are trained in the making of costumes, the painting of scenery, 

and even the making of dyes At present, the courses 

are designed to train leaders for social and recreational activi- 
ties for the government departments, but as the girls give up 
their work in Washington and return to their home states they 
will be qualified to teach in community centers all over the 
United States. 



190 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

United States is completed. It has been showL 
that there have been seven stages, each one more 
or less sharply defined by the incorporation of 
certain features of structure correlative with 
emphasis upon given changes in the concept of 
function. These facts both indicate an evolution 
and imply the presence of "transitions." The 
following section presents an analysis of these 
' ' transitions. ' ' 



IV. THE TRANSITIONS IN THE POLICY 

AND ACTIVITIES OF THE PLAY 

MOVEMENT 

A further analysis of the play movement dis- 
closes changes in its method of procedure that are 
fundamental to its "stages" but are not coter- 
minous with them ; changes that in some instances 
extend cumulatively through several periods giv- 
ing rise to various "stages"; changes that bear 
a longitudinal relation to the movement as the 
' ' stages ' ' hold a latitudinal position. These alter- 
ations are here denominated "transitions," sig- 
nifying passages from one condition or action to 
another. A "transition" is, thus, distinguishable 
from a "stage," as the concepts are employed in 
this investigation, in that it is an alteration in 
a process while the latter is a period or degree in a 
development; that is to say, a "transition" is 
a modification of the method of procedure, while a 
"stage" is a state of progress in a process at a 
given time. The former is dynamic and func- 
tional; the latter, static and structural. An 
analysis of the "transitions" of a movement 
forms the basis for an explanation of the origin 
of its "stages" and a definition of the "trend" 
of the action as a whole. The "transitions" of 
the play movement, then, are the changes in the 
methods of procedure which etfected an evolution 
in its structure and the concept of function giving 

191 



192 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

rise to the respective "stages" analyzed in the 
preceding section, and indicating, in part at least, 
the ' * trend ' ' of the movement which will be studied 
in the subsequent section of this report. 

The "transitions" of the play movement are 
nine in number, as follows: (1) from provision 
for little children to that for all ages of people; 

(2) from facilities operated during the summer 
only to those maintained throughout the year; 

(3) from outdoor equipment and activities only, to 
both outdoor and indoor facilities and events; (4) 
from congested urban districts to both urban and 
rural communities; (5) from philanthropic to 
community support and control; (6) from "free" 
play and miscellaneous events to "directed" play 
with organized activities and correlated sched- 
ules ; (7) from a simple to a complex field of activi- 
ties including manual, physical, aesthetic, social, 
and civic projects; (8) from the provision of 
facilities to the definition of standards for the 
use of leisure time; (9) from "individual" in- 
terests to "group" and community activities. 

A. From provision for little children to that 
for all ages of people. Accepting the establish- 
ment of the sand gardens in Boston in 1885 as the 
beginning of the play movement in the United 
States, the earliest facilities were provided exclu- 
sively for the use of little children, specifically 
those of pre-school and primary-grade ages. As 
was shown above in the analysis of the "sand 
garden" stage, the same age group was provided 




CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES, HAMILTON PARK INDOOR GYMNASIUM, 

CHICAGO 




"WOODEN SHOE" DANCE, WOMEN'S GYMNASIUM, HAMILTON PARK 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 193 

for in each of the five cities conducting play- 
grounds during 1885-95. In Baltimore, the 
society inaugurating the movement there was 
called the "Children's Playground Association" 
as late as 1897. This title was characteristic of 
similar societies elsewhere,^ and was indicative 
of the structure and the concept of the function 
of the play movement during its first stage. 

Following the initial adjustments made in 
behalf of little children came a recognition of the 
need of play facilities for those of the interme- 
diate and grammar grades. The older brothers 
and sisters of the little children playing in the 
sand gardens "gathered about in mute appeal."^ 
And in response, the sand gardens of Boston 
were cautiously opened to them when they signi- 
fied their desire, as the chairman of the com- 
mittee in charge explained it, "to play with the 
little ones, to aid the matrons, or to sit quietly by 
and sew or read or play checkers." 

In Mew York, however, less discrimination was 
made from the first, as indicated by the sporadic 
playground opened in 1890 under the auspices of 
the New York Society for Parks and Playgrounds. 
This provision was designed for boyhood and girl- 
hood as well as for little children. It was about 

^Among these were: The Brooklyn Society for Parks and 
Playgrounds, incorporated in 1889; the New York Society for 
Parks and Playgrounds, 1890; The Providence Free Kinder- 
garten Association, 1893; and the law of New York of 1888 
authorizing the incorporation of "societies for providing parks 
and playgrounds for children in the cities, towns, and vil- 
lages." 

^Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
1902, chapter on "Playgrounds for Big Boys." 



194 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

an acre in size, located at 99th Street and 2nd 
Avenue, and was equipped with apparatus for 
"exercise, play, and comfort,"^ consisting of see- 
saws, swings, wheelbarrows, small wagons, foot- 
balls, flags, shovels, drums, banners, and a sand 
pile. 

Recognition of the necessity for making pro- 
visions for the play of youths, "playgrounds for 
big boys" as Joseph Lee called them,* was the 
third step in the lengthening of the age of the 
group with whom the play movement is con- 
cerned. This type of provision was a distinctive 
feature of the "model playgrounds" as shown 
above, although in New York it was also a part 
of the general anti-slum agitation as has been 
interestingly told by Jacob Riis.^ There was no 
separation there, at the time, between the two 
movements. In 1899 the Massachusetts Emer- 
gency and Hygiene Association opened three sum- 
rner playgrounds in Boston designed especially 
for boys between twelve and fifteen years of age. 
They were equipped with a limited amount of 
gymnastic apparatus and supervised by young 
men with some training in physical education. 
This experiment was sufficiently successful to war- 
rant its repetition the following year, after which 
the school committee took over the playgrounds 
conducted by the Association.® Pioneering work 

^Joseph Lee, op. cif. 

*Ihid. 

5Cf. Jacob Riis, "A Ten Years" War:' 

^Ci. Ellen M. Tower, "Playgrounds and Sand Gardens," in 
World Wide, Montreal, April 26, 1902. Paper read before the 
Montreal Local Council of Women. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 195 

had been done, however, by the park department 
of Boston, when it opened Charlesbank Outdoor 
Gymnasium in 1889-91 and Franklin Field in 
1894. The most extensive provisions for the play 
of adolescents were made during the "small park" 
and "recreation center" stages, of which that by 
the South Park Commissioners, Chicago, was the 
most elaborate. After the first year of the opera- 
tion of the South Park "recreation centers," the 
opinion of the commissioners on their function 
in the life of the youths of the city was as follows :^ 

Playground movements in most cities have been confined 
almost entirely to the interests of school children, and to a 
short period of the year. In Chicago more than two-thirds 
of our children leave school to go to work before, or when, 
the eighth grade is reached. Since the dominant interest in 
the life of a youth is play and not work, and since the best 
growth and development at this age comes from play and not 
from "work, it seems that more attention should be given to 
an all-year playground service and that it should take into 
consideration the young working boys and girls quite as much 
as the children in school. 

The incorporation of facilities for adult play 
and recreation in the structure and concept of the 
function of the play movement followed that for 
youths and children. The beginnings of adequate 
provision of this type were made in connection 
with the "small park" and "recreation center" 
stages, but the social organization of adult play 
did not develop until the "civic art and welfare" 
and the "neighborhood organization" stages of 
the movement. In the latter, play was considered 

''Annual Report South Park Commissioners, 1906, p. 57. 



lOfi THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

a community function to the extent that its admin- 
istration could be made efficient only through the 
operation of facilities that united the family and 
the neighborhood group of families in common 
activities for at least a part of the time ; that is, 
the provision for either children or adults involved 
some activities in which both participated simul- 
taneously. The pageant, festival, neighborhood 
social dances, entertainments, gymnastic exhibi- 
tions, track meets, holiday celebrations, welfare 
exhibits, community councils, community days, 
and picnics were examples of attempts to unite 
the family and the neighboring families in whole- 
some uses of leisure time. 

It should not be overlooked, however, that 
during the earlier stages of the movement adults 
were often beneficraries of provisions primarily 
intended for youths and that a few sporadic pro- 
visions were made in their behalf. There were, 
for example, the evening recreation centers in the 
New York Schools, 1895-97, and the city recrea- 
tion piers in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, 
1897-99. There were the bathing beaches of Bos- 
ton and a few other cities, in the nineties, during 
the summer and skating on park lagoons and 
small flooded areas in many cities in winter, first 
in the New England and North Atlantic states, 
and later in the Middle West. There were, also, 
the ball fields and the athletic grounds in public 
parks. But the more conscious attempts to incor- 
porate facilities for adults came with the ' * recrea- 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 197 

tion center" stage in 1905, although it was a 
decade before their utilization was fully devel- 
oped. The tennis courts, baseball diamonds, foot- 
ball gridirons, swimming pools, and outdoor gym- 
nasiums completely equipped and supervised by 
trained instructors distinguished the outdoor 
facilities. But ample and beautiful as were these 
open air features, the fieldhouse erected in each 
of these new parks was a more dramatic event 
in provision for mature members of the com- 
munity. Each building contained an assembly 
hall, two to four clubrooms, a library or reading 
room, a lunchroom, a men's and a women's gym- 
nasium with appropriate shower-bath and locker- 
room facilities. Each gymnasium was in charge 
of a trained instructor who organized formal 
classes for all ages as well as arranged interpark 
team-game competition, while the free use of 
assembly hall and clubrooms, as well as free 
admission to all gymnasium classes, stimulated 
activities in any wholesome manner that might 
appeal to maturity. Relgious sectarianism, politi- 
cal partisanism, advertising commodities, smok- 
ing, and card-playing were prohibited. Los An- 
geles, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York were 
first to follow the example of Chicago, and since 
then, facilities for adult relaxation have been an 
essential feature of the play movement. 

The ''wider use of the school plant "^ has been 
the plan of adult provision for play generally 

8cf. Clarence A. Perry, The Wider Use of the School 
Plant, 1910, and Community Center Activities, 1916. 



198 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

adopted and involves the opening of the building 
and grounds after school hours, principally dur- 
ing the evening, for lectures, night school, gym- 
nastics, and dramatic, musical, and civic clubs. 
Among the latter uses are the "community coun- 
cils." John Dewey forcibly advocated the wider 
use of the schoolhouse at the meeting of the Na- 
tional Educational Association at Minneapolis, 
1902.^ It was dramatically tried out on a large 
scale for the first time in Eochester, New York, 
during 1907-9, under the personal direction of 
E. J. Ward and supported by an appropriation of 
$5,000 by the school board," while during the 
winter of 1910-11, thirty-one cities reported that 
their schoolhouses were used as "recreation cen- 
ters." Twenty-seven contained 201 centers. 

In a special statement relative to the progress 
of the play movement during the year 1910, the 
secretary of the Playground Association of 
America, speaking of contemporary developments 
indicated by reports sent in to his office, said :" 

More and more the municipal play center is providing 
for the recreation of the adult members of the community 
as well as for the children. 

So strong was this tendency that in the follow- 
ing year the name of the Association was changed 
to that of the Playground and Eecreation Asso- 
ciation of America, so as to be more in accord 

9Cf, The Playground, May, 1915, p. 42. 

i^Cf. Rochester Social and Civic Clubs, 1909. 

i^H. S. Braucher, "Developments and Opportunities in the 
Field of Public Recreation," publication of the Playground 
Association of America, 1910, 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 199 

with the transition taking place in the structure 
and the concept of the function of the movement. 
In 1912, Percy Wallace MacKaye in a widely read 
volume on "the civic theatre'"^ advocated an 
extension of provision for the leisure-time pur- 
suits of adults ; in 1913, the Committee on School 
Inquiry of New York^^ reported that there was 
greater necessity for an organization of adult 
leisure than ever before on account of certain 
changes in the industrial order; while in 1914, 
the Eecreational Inquiry Committee of the state 
of California," after a survey of the play facili- 
ties of the state, declared itself in favor of 
an extension of those designed to conserve the 
leisure time of adults. By 1915, as disclosed in 
the analysis of the "neighborhood organization" 
stage above, the technique for the conservation of 
adult leisure was carefully elaborated in the 
"community council," a self-governing and self- 
supporting organization of neighborhood recrea- 
tional resources. During 1918-19 "community 
service" was established as a modification of the 
neighborhood organization plan for conserving 
the leisure of all ages of people in the community. 
Thus the play movement evolved in its struc- 
ture and concept of function from an agency for 

i2p. W. MacKaye, The Civic Theatre in Its Relation to the 
Redemption of Leisure, 1912, p. 30. 

i^Cf. Report on the Economic Utilisation of the Public 
School Plant for Educational and Recreational Purposes, of 
the Committee on School Inquiry of the Board of Estimates 
and Apportionment of the City of New York, 1913, pp. 409-10. 

^^Report of the Recreational Inquiry Committee of the 
state of California, September 28, 1914. 



200 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

conserving the play of children to a medium for 
the exercise of the play activities by all ages of 
people. 

B. From summer to annual provision for play. 
The first playgrounds were operated only during 
the summer. This fact applied to those of both 
the ''sand garden" and the "model playground" 
stages and was true also of most provisions made 
during the "small park" stage of the movement. 
Beside the sand gardens conducted by the Massa- 
chusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association 
between 1885 and 1902, other examples of sum- 
mer-time provision were the Charlesbank 
Outdoor Gymnasium, Boston, 1889-91; Boone 
Park, Louisville, Kentucky, 1892; the first two 
playgrounds opened in Philadelphia, by phil- 
anthropy, in 1893; the first half-dozen New 
York City playgrounds including the one in 
1895 carried on "under a wisteria vine"^^ 
in the backyard of the Nurses' settlement; the 
opening of certain schoolyards in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, in 1896, at the request of the edu- 
cational department of the Civic Club of that 
city ;^^ the nine schoolyard playgrounds opened at 
Providence, R. I., in 1897, under the supervision 
of the Free Kindergarten Association, the season 
extending from July 7 to September 8;" the first 

playground opened by the Children's Playground 

isjoseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 
p. 127. 

i^AnnnaZ Report Pittshurgh Playground Association, 1908. 

'^''Annual Report Free Kindergarten Association, Provi- 
dence, 1898. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 20J 

Association in Baltimore/^ July 1, 1897, as well 
as the five additional ones conducted the follow- 
ing year; and many others throughout the coun- 
try maintained by philanthropic effort. 

Not only were the first philanthropic efforts 
in providing playgrounds limited to summer 
periods, but the first municipal appropriations 
also were for the maintenance of vacation play- 
grounds. In 1895 the city councils of Philadel- 
phia appropriated $1,000 for the equipment of 
schoolyard summer playgrounds, of which four 
were sand gardens. The next year the appro- 
priation was made $3,000, remaining at that fig- 
ure for the next seven years. These playgrounds 
were maintained during the months of July and 
August. By 1898 the number had increased to 
twenty-five. The record of beginnings of munici- 
pal appropriations for play in New York par- 
allels that of Philadelphia. In 1897 Mayor 
Strong's committee on small parks, of which 
Jacob A. Eiis was secretary, reported, "New York 
has not yet a single municipal playground, and 
not yet a school playground worthy of the 
name."" As a result of the publicity growing 
out of this report, the school board at a meeting 
on June 13, 1898, approved a measure that 
eighteen school yards be "used for purposes of 
recreation during the vacation months, the ex- 
penditures necessary to be paid from the funds 

^^Annual Report Children's Playground Association, Balti- 
more, 1898. 

"Cf. Joseph Lee, op. cit. 



202 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

now at the disposal of the board. ' "° The vacation 
months referred to in the measure were July and 
August. The following year there were thirty- 
one "school play centers" of which ten were 
devoted in the mornings to vacation school pur- 
poses. The school board also had charge of "five 
open-air gymnasiums, five 'kindergarten tents,' 
six recreation piers, three sand gardens with kin- 
dergarten games in Central Park, seven roof gar- 
dens, ten swimming baths, and six evening play 
centers."-^ Chicago, in like manner, appropri- 
ated, by action of the city Council, in 1898, $1,000 
for "temporary small parks." The money was 
entrusted to the vacation school committee of the 
Women's Clubs" of that city. The Board of Edu- 
cation granted the use of six schoolyards, and 
the Turnvereins loaned portable gymnastic appa- 
ratus. Playgrounds were conducted during the 
summer vacation months only. In Milwaukee, 
the city park commissioners in 1897 established 
a playground in West Park as an experiment. 
And for the next decade the general plan devel- 
oped by the cities mentioned above was pursued 
almost literally by all communities making pro- 
vision for play. 

Slowly did the cities adopt the plan of all- 
year provision for play. For years the custom 

-^Annual Report Board of Education, New York, 1898. 

-^Annual Report, New York City School Board, 1899, pp. 
28-32. 

^^Annual Report Vacation School Committee, Chicago 
Women's Clubs, 1898. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 203 

of opening playgrounds only during the school 
vacation period was adhered to by even the more 
progressive communities, while the joy of the open 
schoolyards of summer made eloquent appeal in 
contrast with the closed yards of the remaining 
ten months of the year — closed by an iron fence, a 
locked gate, and an irate janitor, ^'for fear, ap- 
parently," as Joseph Lee, writing at the time, 
ironically remarked, "they may be of some use." 
And as he further explained: 

The reason usually alleged is that the children will do 
mischief if they are allowed inside; but it has not yet been 
shown either that children can use a playground to advantage 
if they are not allowed inside or that they wholly abstain 
from mischief when they have no playground. The real rea- 
son appears to be that the janitors do not like the trouble 
involved in having the yards opened; and, as everybody 
knows, the function of the school janitor is to direct the 
school committee. Some cities have gone so far as to build 
schoolhouses without any yards at all,^^ 

The public parks are to be credited with show- 
ing the way to all-year provision, which later was 
adopted generally by school boards. 

The development of the ''new park service," 
as it was contemporaneously called, rested on 
the custom of playing baseball in spring and mid- 
summer and football in the autumn. The first 
step was taken when skating was not only per- 
mitted but provided for by park commissions both 
on lagoons, ponds, and rivers, and on artificially 
flooded areas, from the surface of which the snow 
and fine ice-cuttings caused by extensive use were 

23Joseph Lee, '^Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy. " 



204 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

nightly swept, and a new and perfect surface 
provided the next morning by reflooding and 
freezing during the night, after the skaters had 
departed. While sporadic attempts were made in 
a few places, as in Boston in 1892, for example, 
when two acres in the Charlesbank Outdoor Gym- 
nasium were flooded by the park department, the 
movement reached general practice about 1900. 
At that time many of the northern cities made 
regular provision of this kind. Boston pos- 
sessed fourteen municipal skating-places, nine 
being artificially flooded and ten regularly swept 
off by a horse-drawn device for the purpose; in 
all about 130 acres containing seven ice-hockey 
fields. Chicago had fifteen acres flooded and 
swept, in addition to nearly a hundred vacant 
lots with a total of nearly three hundred acres 
flooded by the fire department but cared for by 
the people of the vicinity. St. Paul provided five 
acres; Milwaukee, seven; and Detroit, twelve. 
Cleveland, New York, Minneapolis, and six other 
cities, fourteen in all, reported skating^* provided 
by their respective park systems. Coasting^^ and 
tobogganing were also allowed in many cities. 

24Skating is a close competitor with bathing for the first 
place in popularity and value among municipal provisions for 
play and exercise. The ponds in the middle of a city, even 
those whose surface is planed every morning, are often worn 
by afternoon or evening until their surface is a mixture of 
gravel and soft snow; and with their crowds of skaters they 
look, from a little height, like flypaper at a summer hotel. — 
J. Lee, Constructive and Preventive PMlantliropy, p. 233. 

25"Coasting is allowed in Boston on certain streets and on 
one of the hills on the common, sometimes on other parts of it. 
There was a time in Mayor Prince's administration when some 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 205 

The second step taken by the park departments 
toward all-year provision of play and recreational 
facilities was the creation of the "small parks." 
New York City opened the William H. Seward 
Park in 1902-3, which contained a building mak- 
ing possible the use of the grounds throughout 
the year.-° But the most dramatic event look- 
ing toward all-year provision of recreational 
equipment and activities was the construction of 
ten small parks containing a heretofore unseen 
type of public recreational facility, the "field 
house," by the South Park Commissioners, Chi- 
cago, in 1903-5. In these fieldhouses, not only 
was indoor space heated and lighted and freely 
offered to neighborhood groups for play, but a 
definite program of events was established in 
each indoor gymnasium, led by the same indi- 
viduals who directed the summer outdoor play- 
grounds and gymnasiums located in these 
institutions. Thus, contact by way of leadership 
as well as physical equipment was here first main- 
tained on a large scale with the neighborhoods of 
public play centers.^^ Although the method of 



of the principal wall?;s were iced by the city and bridges built 
across them which the solid men of Boston had to climb on 
their way to business and back, but one or two fatalities 
resulted in the giving up of the experiment." — Ihid. 

26A description of this building will be found below, where 
the transition of the play movement from outdoor to indoor 
activities is discussed. It is significant here that such a pro- 
posal was entertained for the purpose of providing some form 
of more adequate facilities throughout the year. 

-''The further significance of this fact will be shown below 
under section F. 



206 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



leadership in these small parks was greatly 
altered after five years of experience, and further 
developed after another like period, nevertheless 
the ten small parks in question revolutionized 
municipal provision for leisure-time activities. 
They remain today unique in the history of the 
movement, although other cities have modeled 
after them. Los Angeles was first, opening an 
all-year playground containing a club house in 
1905, and with the West Chicago Park Commis- 
sioners, the Philadelphia Board of Recreation, and 
the Boston municipal gymnasiums later, was one 
of the more perfect examples of an adoption of the 
South Park plan. 

TABLE XII 

Development of Axl-Yeae Provision foe Play in Cities of 

THE United States* 



Year 


No. of Cities 

Reporting- 
All- Year 
Provision 


No. of 

Workers 

Employed 

All Year 


Percentage 

of Cities 

Making 

All-Year 

Provision 


1909 


32 
68 
36 




12 


1910 




37 


1911 


377 


14 


1912 


63 


655 


22 


1913 


68 


337 


20 


1915 


111 


1053 


25.7 


1916 


108 


675 


29 


1917 


140 


1454 


29.3 


1918 


128 


1630 


34.3 



•Compiled from statistics published In the Yearbooks of 
the Playground and Recreation Association of America. 

Table XII gives the increase in number of 
cities providing all-year facilities for play by 
years, for a period of nine years following 1909, 
the first year in which statistics on the subject 
were available. There was an increase from 32 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 207 

to 128 cities representing respectively 12 and 34.3 
per cent of all cities reporting provision during 
those years. The year 1918 showed 12 cities 
less than during 1917, on account of the partici- 
pation of the United States in the Great War, yet 
the total number of workers that year increased 
176 in spite of the demands upon them for "war 
camp community service." 

The transition from provision during the sum- 
mer only to that throughout the year was accom- 
panied by the following six disclosures in the 
evolution of the structure and concept of the play 
movement: (1) that facilities for play are popular 
in all seasons of the year; (2) that from the 
hygienic standpoint organized play is more bene- 
ficial in winter than in summer because of the 
greater amount of time spent out of doors during 
the latter; (3) that it is impossible to administer 
play with the greatest efficiency by employing 
different persons as leaders in the same play- 
ground for each vacation period; (4) that effi- 
cient play leaders cannot be secured summer after 
summer unless similar employment is furnished 
them during the remainder of the year; (5) that 
the efficiency of play-leadership is further in- 
creased by continuous employment of a given 
person in the same community for a period of 
years; and in like manner, (6) the maintenance 
of an all-year play center providing activities 
appropriate to each season on the same site is 
equally advantageous. Only as this plan is 



>) 



208 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

adhered to, is it possible to achieve "neighbor 
hood organization" or "community service 
Play is a group function. It remains while per- 
sons pass away, and that form of adjustment is 
best suited to the provision of facilities which is 
permanent, continued, complete, and unified in one 
agency, such as a community center in school or 
heldhouse. From the days of the "sand garden" 
stage, administrators of playgrounds and recrea- 
tion centers have observed the fact that a new 
play center is more difficult to discipline and 
organize than one that has long been established.^* 
With the passing of time, a routine, a variety of 
customs and traditions, a structure of social 
activites, and a concept of function is built up in 

2sCf. Ellen M. Tower, "Play-Grounds and Sand-Gardens," 
World Wide, April 26, 1902. "The civilizing influences of the 
sand garden are apparent on the first day of a session — in an 
old yard the children enter quietly, welcome the teacher with 
joy, apply themselves at once to their play and occupation, 
and there is little excitement. For an account of a new yard, 
may I quote from the report of 1899. In an experience of 
twelve years we have encountered nothing worse than the 
systematized depravity of this, to us, new neighborhood. The 
children were fairly interested with the toys and books, games, 
gymnastics, songs, and flowers, but the thing that roused the 
keenest joy, that brought a shout of delight from almost every 
lip, that left the yard empty in a twinkling, was a street fight 
among their mothers. The men hung about the sidewalk and 
egged the boys on to mischief and rebellion and paid them 
sometimes to carry out their evil suggestions. The women 
fought with the children, blow for blow, and one day a fierce 
creature rushed through the gate with a hammer in her hand 
after a small boy who had, she thought, struck her child. 

"Nearly all the sand gardens have been opened with like 
turbulence, although few quarters of the city are as depraved 
as the one here mentioned. At Hancock school there was last 
summer a daily average attendance of 456 children, and only 
once was there, to use the slang of the day, a 'scrap.' Then 
the guilty one was a boy of defective mind, who should have 
been sent to an asylum." 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 209 

a play center that is continuously operated, espe- 
cially under the administration of the same per- 
sons when they are reasonably efficient.^® The 
transition from summer to annual provision for 
play, therefore, is related in general to the quality 
as well as the quantity of the service rendered 
by the movement. 

C. From outdoor equipment to both indoor 
and outdoor facilities. Correlative with the 
development of all-year operation in the place of 
summertime provision, came the construction of 
indoor as well as outdoor facilities. This change 
in the structure and the concept of the function of 
the play movement constituted a third transition 
in its evolution; and since a complete analysis 
involves a consideration of many events previ- 
ously mentioned in the discussion of the second 
transition, the study made here may be somewhat 

29While the present writer was engaged in the administra- 
tion of Hamilton Park Community Center, Chicago, during 
1910-17, he had occasion to observe the influence of continuous 
all-year provision in one center: groups would assemble daily 
for the "organized" games and play for hours without supervi- 
sion or altercations; members of clubs that had disbanded for 
the summer would re-unite for winter meetings in the field- 
house; attendants at the gymnasium classes would stand in 
line by the hundred on the opening day for indoor classes each 
autumn; numberless people would make inquiries concerning 
the coming "Flag-day program," or "Fourth of July celebra- 
tion," or "mid-winter" gymnastic exhibition or "Spring fes- 
tival," or similar special event weeks before time, and interest 
such as that facilitates their organization. A certain stana- 
ard of decorum was also maintained by the group conscious- 
ness relative to the behavior of persons making use of the 
dance hall, the ball field, the library, etc. The park teams 
adopted "yells," "colors," "uniforms," and other insignia to 
express their attitude toward the community of interest that 
abounded. 



210 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

briefer than would have been possible had it been 
presented in advance of the foregoing analysis 
of the second transition. But while the second 
and third transitions have much in common, their 
development was not identical in time nor coter- 
minous in structure. The idea of making provi- 
sion for play throughout the year did not involve 
at first the construction of indoor facilities as in 
the ''sand garden," "model playground," and 
''small park" stages, when, with the exception of 
shelters, that might be temporarily converted into 
"playrooms" on rainy or chilly days, as in Phila- 
delphia, there was no concept of the "indoor gym- 
nasium," the "assembly hall," the "clubrooms," 
the "branch library," or the "school social cen- 
ter" which characterized the "recreation center" 
and subsequent stages of the movement. Thus 
the construction of indoor facilities for play began 
after the idea of all-year provision had gained 
considerable ground, although the full develop- 
ment and widest application of the two ideas were 
made simultaneously and in mutual correlation. 
During the "sand garden" stage, as shown 
by Table III above,^" the only equipment actually 
constructed was that for outdoor uses only, 
although in Boston and Providence permission to 
use the toilets and the basement of the school 
buildings on rainy days, was granted by the school 
committees. Similar facilities were also acces- 
sible to those using settlement yards. But the 

s'^Cf. Miss Towers' description of "sand gardens" above. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 211 

apparatus provided primarily for play consisted 
of sand piles, sand bins, swings, teeters, and in 
some instances, as in Brooklyn, a tent to shelter 
from the heat of the sun, although in Boston 
the "sand garden" was conducted on the shady 
side of the schoolhouse. During this stage, also, 
the various attempts to make an adjustment to 
the play-life of the children were all undertaken 
by philanthropic people or societies so that the 
funds were limited and the equipment more or 
less temporary, the site often changing from 
summer to summer. 

In the "model playground" stage, also, the 
support and control still remained under philan- 
thropic management, although as shown by Table 
IV,^^ the playgrounds in four of the five cities 
conducting "model" examples were located on 
public property; in three cities the playgrounds 
were open throughout the year, being used pri- 
marily for skating during the winter months by 
flooding the grounds; while four provided appa- 
ratus for youth as well as little children, of which 
the sand pile was a universal feature. In three 
cities the "model" playgrounds made use of 
school buildings as did the ' ' sand gardens ' ' before 
them, but in only one instance was an indoor 
equipment of any kind contemplated^^ and this 
was essentially a shelter which was to be used 
for play only on days of inclement weather when 
the outdoor equipment was inaccessible. The 

3iCf. page 68 above. 
32philadelphia. 



212 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

concept of constructing indoor facilities primarily 
as a play provision was not exemplified even in 
this case. The recreation piers opened in New 
York in 1897 and the roof gardens agitated at 
about the same time were both outdoor facilities, 
although possessing in some instances shelter from 
sun and rain. While the object of the Outdoor 
Recreation League, whose very title is significant, 
and whose influence upon the movement in New 
York was responsible for the *' model play- 
grounds" and the form in which the ''small 
parks ' ' were finally developed, being composed of 
a federation of nineteen societies, was, in part, 

to obtain recognition of the necessity for restoration and 
physical exercise as fundamental to the moral and physical 
welfare of the people; to secure the establishment through 
the city of New York of proper and sufficient exercise in 
recreation places, playgrounds, and open air gymnasiums for 
the people.^^ 

During the "small park" stage, likewise, the 
concept of the structure and the function of the 
play movement involved outdoor activities and 
facilities primarily, and indoor equipment only 
as a secondary and auxiliary feature. As shown 
above in Table V, one of the motives that gave 
rise to ''small parks" was the desire for greater 
utility of existing parked spaces; a second, an 
increase in the number of open spaces in the con- 
gested sections of cities ; and a third, the beauti- 
fication of play spaces by "parking" or the use of 

^^Cf. Constitution of the Outdoor Recreation League of 
New York, 1899. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 213 

lawn, shrubbery, trees, and flowers in their con- 
struction. And as stated in Table VI, the struc- 
ture and organization of the "small parks" in 
the seven cities studied involved open air facili- 
ties, such as (1) spaces for athletics in six cities, 

(2) aesthetic treatment of the site in six, and 

(3) a wading pool in one; while the only indoor 
equipment comprised a "field" or "shelter" 
house in each of the seven cities with shower 
baths in two, while both features were auxiliary 
to the primary purpose of the "small parks." 
The term "fieldhouse" at that time did not con- 
note what it does today, for the South Park "field- 
houses," the most complete in the country, had 
not yet been erected. The earliest "fieldhouse" 
was merely a box in which to store apparatus.^* 
Next it became a shelter for the patrons of the 
playground^^ and finally with the construction of 
the Chicago and Los Angeles types in 1905, an 
elaborate indoor recreational plant. From that 
date the "fieldhouse" has been regarded as an 
integral part of provision, being of value pri- 
marily on acount of the facilities for play which 
were added by it rather than because of an aux- 
iliary function which it performed in relation to 
the outdoor equipment, as was the concept of 
shelters and shower baths during the first three 
stages of the movement. 

3*An example of this type was given by the sand gardens 
of Boston. 

35An example of this type was found in Brooklyn in 1897, 
and In general throughout the "model playgrounds" and "small 
parks." 



214 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The dividing line between the two concepts of 
the function of ''indoor" equipment in connec- 
tion with provision for play marks the inception 
of the ''recreation center" stage of the movement. 
The growth of the new concept passed through 
four phases: (1) the park "fieldhouse" period, 
(2) the "social centers" in public school build- 
ings, (3) the remodeled school plant designed for 
both "play" and "school" uses, and (4) the use 
of library, courthouse, armory, and other public 
buildings for play, as in the "community service" 
stage. 

The most significant contribution to the indoor 
play equipment was the construction of the ' ' field- 
house" by the South Park Commissioners, Chi- 
cago, in 1905, fully described above under the 
analysis of the "recreation center" stage. This 
plan was later found to be uneconomical since it 
involved the expense of constructing and main- 
taining a dual system of provision for "play" 
and "education" with no commensurate gains. 
Where this plan is followed the "fieldhouse" 
remains idle during the daytime while the school- 
house is in use, and conversely, the schoolhouse 
is unoccupied while the "fieldhouse" is in 
use. The recognition of this fact led to the 
utilization of the schoolhouse as a "social 
center," first in Rochester, New York, in 
1907-9, as a means of providing indoor facili- 
ties for play throughout the year. The "com- 
munity centers" in Chicago and New York 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 215 

during 1916-18 were further elaborations of 'Hhe 
wider use of the school plant" which was well 
begun in 1910, five years after the opening of the 
South Park ''fieldhouse" in Chicago. Table VII 
above shows that thirty-one cities used their 
schoolhouses as evening ''recreation centers" for 
the first time in 1910 while during each of the 
next six years the number was much larger, that 
of 1913 being 152 and that of 1917, 113, while the 
total number of centers provided in city schools 
between 1913 and 1917 was 2,622. 

The utilization of school buildings as "recrea- 
f/tion centers" led to fundamental changes in 
school architecture. Those designed for class 
room instruction were found to be poorly adapted 
to the function of community centers. A room 
with fixed seats ''gave a formable and stiff appear- 
ance"^" and was suitable only for singing clubs, 
choruses, debating and literary programs, lec- 
tures for small groups, and library and night 
class uses. The first modifications consisted of 
attaching the desks to strips so that they could 
be easily moved either to one side or out of the 
room and thus give sufficient space for folk and 
social dancing, games, gymnastic classes, wres- 
tling, and many other activities. In later build- 
ings two rooms were sometimes divided by a 
folding partition which could be pushed aside to 
form a small hall for social gatherings, dancing, 
and gymnastic classes, the desks being removable 

^^Annual Report, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, 1916, 
p. 24. 



216 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

as before. Next gymnasiums were included and 
used both for gymnasium and assembly hall pur- 
poses, but this arrangement was not entirely satis- 
factory since the demand often developed con- 
flicts between groups who sought to use the room 
at the same time but for different ends. After 
much experimentation it was found" that 

An ideal building is one which in addition to the ordi- 
nary school rooms and domestic science rooms, library, etc., 
provides one or more large floor space for social dancing, so 
that the young people may feel that their wants are provided 
for and at the same time furnishes a gymnasium for physical 
recreation, and leaves the assembly hall for neighborhood 
gatherings, lectures, and entertainments, and for use as a 
public forum. 

Practically all of the ''social centers" con- 
ducted in 1905-12 were obliged to curtail one or 
more activities each evening on account of the 
absence of some essential features in the design 
of the school plant. The Froebel school, of Gary, 
Indiana, was perhaps the first example of ''an 
ideal building" for recreational and social uses. 
It was located on a twelve-acre site with about 
seven acres constituting a parked foreground and 
the remainder devoted to athletics, games, sand 
pile, and gardening uses, while two swimming 
pools, two gymnasiums, an assembly hall with a 
stage about eighty feet in width and convertible 
into a gymnasium as well as adaptable to dra- 
matics and pageantry arid other entertainment 
uses, beside the library, domestic science, and 

^'^Annual Report, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, 1916, 
p. 25. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 217 

shop equipment constituted the facilities for play 
indoors. A suggestive plant was that of the New 
Trier Township High School, Kenilworth, Illi- 
nois.^^ In these and similar plans is disclosed the 
idea of equipment for community center purposes 
that prevailed prior to the Great War ; a combina- 
tion of facilities for ''play" and ''education" with 
distinctive features of the "small parks" added. 
Since "war camp community service," the con- 
struction of "memorial buildings" and the use 
of all public buildings, such as armories, libraries, 
and courthouses in small communities, has devel- 
oped in addition to the utilization of the school 
plant as a community center. Memorial build- 
ings have been erected more extensively in rural 
communities than elsewhere, and exist, or are in 
process of construction, in five hundred rural com- 
munities today. "Township halls," as in Kan- 
sas,^® "community high-school districts" with 
additions to the school plants that make them 
more adaptable to the play function, as in Illi- 
nois, and consolidated grade schools in many 
states are other forms of adjustment being ap- 
plied in rural communities. Thus, briefly, has the 
play movement evolved in structure and the con- 
cept of function from an adjustment that utilized 
outdoor equipment only to that which comprises 
both indoor and outdoor facilities. 

38Cf_ Annual Catalogue of the New Trier Township High 
School, 1916. 

s^Cf. Rural Community Buildings, Department of Agri- 
culture, Bulletin No. 825, p. 29. 



218 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

D. From congested urban districts to both 
urban and rural communities. The first adjust- 
ments attempted by the play movement were 
made in those districts of our larger cities in 
which the greatest congestion of population pre- 
vailed. Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Chi- 
cago, and New York were those to which the 
movement was confined during the "sand gar- 
den" stage of its history. These were also the 
cities in which ** model playgrounds" were estab- 
lished, although sand gardens were being intro- 
duced contemporaneously in Brooklyn, Pitts- 
burgh, Baltimore, Milwaukee, San Francisco, 
Cleveland, Minneapolis, Denver, and Louisville. 
During the ''small park" stage likewise, the 
movement was restricted to cities and in particu- 
lar to the effort to extend parks and playgrounds 
into the older and more thickly populated dis- 
tricts. As disclosed above in the analysis of tiiat 
stage, those in New York were developed in con- 
junction with the anti-slum agitation, being the 
final solution of that problem as exemplified by the 
history of Mulberry Bend Park and the Hamilton 
Fish, DeWitt Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and 
William H. Seward parks.*" In Louisville, the 
site of one of the earliest ' * small parks ' ' was in a 
section of the city occupied by its foreign popula- 
tion and popularly known as ''the Cabbage 
Patch."" In Philadelphia, the first two "small 

40Cf. pages 73-79. 
«Cf. page 80. 




GIRLS' INDOOR OYMNASIUM CLASS, HAMILTON PARK 
FIELDHOUSE, CHICAGO 




BRANCH PUBLIC LIBRARY. HAMILTON PARK 
FIELDHOUSE, CHICAGO 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 219 

parks" were constructed in similar sections, Ger- 
mantown and Starr Garden." In Boston Charles- 
bank Outdoor Gymnasium was originally a narrow 
strip of unsightly river bank, bordered on the land 
side by a slum section.*^ While in Chicago, the 
first of the three declared purposes of the ^ ' small 
park" commission appointed by the mayor to in- 
vestigate the situation in that city, was to establish 
municipal playgrounds in the congested sections 
of the city as rapidly as finances permitted.** 

In the ''recreation center" stage, even, the 
function of the playground in congested districts 
of urban communities was still more clearly con- 
ceived than that in other districts, although it was 
during this stage that the beginning of the transi- 
tion occurred. Thus the progress of the play 
movement in San Francisco, as in many other 
communities, was retarded by the report of a com- 
mittee that the great number of vacant lots made 
it unnecessary to make municipal provision since 
there was ample space upon which the children 
could play.*^ This sentiment was paralleled by 
the attitude prevailing until about 1910 with re- 
spect to playgrounds in connection with rural 
schools. It was thought, thus, that the large 
schoolyards and the open country surrounding 
them made it unnecessary to equip and direct 
rural schoolyard playgrounds. In some instances, 
in fact, the recess periods were abolished, so that 

«Cf. page 82. 43Cf. page 72. ^^Ct page 84. 
*^Proceedings of the Playground Association, 1900. 



220 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the children as well as the teacher could go home 
one-half hour earlier than was otherwise possible. 
In conjunction with the idea that play facilities 
were more necessary in crowded districts was the 
belief that the children of the poor required pro- 
vision more than did those of the rich, a point of 
view overlooking the essential fact that play is 
natural to all normal children irrespective of 
economic status or geographical location. But 
gradually, however, the social aspect of the nature 
and function of play came to be more clearly 
understood, and consequently (1) that children in 
comfortable homes may lack opportunities for 
normal association with playmates of their own 
age; (2) that all children learn games through 
membership in a group — through social inheri- 
tance not biological heredity; and (3) that plays 
and games must be taught wherever the channels 
of communication between persons and groups are 
not open to normal functioning.**^ As Newell had 
pointed out in 1911, the children of America had 
the richest play heritage of any nation of the civil- 
ized world until about the last quarter of the 
nineteenth century. Then our traditions of play 
began a rapid decline and, unless some adjustment 
is not quickly made, may be permanently lost 
because of the isolation in rural districts and the 
congestion and immigration in urban communi- 
ties.*^ The function of the play movement, as it 

40Cf. G. E. Johnson, "Why Teach a Child to Play?" Pro-^ 
ceedings of the Playground Association, 1909. 
^^Cf. page 9 above. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 221 

is conceived with respect to children, is to revive 
the heritage of play in all communities where it is 
passing away. 

As the social function of play both in childhood 
and maturity came to be more clearly discerned, 
the necessity for some adjustment in both the 
rural districts and the exclusive residential section 
of the cities as well as the over-populated areas of 
urban communities became increasingly evident. 
And, contemporaneously, that adjustment came to 
be regarded as a community function. Conse- 
quently, in the cities the play facilities were dis- 
tributed in keeping with a plan to place them 
within reach of every one, irrespective of the 
economic or social status by which a given dis- 
trict might be characterized. This fact is dis- 
closed by an examination of the playground map 
of any city today, showing both the location of 
new spaces devoted to playgrounds and the con- 
struction of play facilities in the older parks to 
be frequently surrounded by the more expensive 
residences. While in addition to this, as play 
came to be more generally used in the educational 
process, schoolyards in both urban and rural 
communities were equipped and supervised for 
play during recess and after-school hours. 

The leading events indicative of the fact of a 
transition from crowded sections of cities to all 
communities throughout the nation comprise the 
following, all occurring during or after 1906 :*^ 

^^Sporadic attempts that deserve passing attention in this 
connection were the New York Law of 1895 requiring play- 



222 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

On April 10-12, 1906, the Playground Associa- 
ciation of America was organized in Washington, 
D. C, to extend the movement throughout the 
United States and Canada. In June of that year 
there was held the first annual field-day and play- 
picnic of the county schools of Ulster County, New 
York. This event served as a model and source 
of inspiration to later rural recreational experi- 
ments throughout the country; a subsequent one 
being the first county fair and field-day in Camp- 
bell County, Virginia, 1908.*" By 1911 twenty- 
five counties of that state were holding similar 
events. On June 10, 1910, a rural pageant was 
held at Ripon, Wisconsin.^" And in the same 
year, the Board of Land Commissioners of Colo- 
rado,'^ at the request of the state superintendent 
of public instruction, passed a resolution granting 
from two to five acres of land for playground 
purposes to district school boards when the dis- 
trict board shall agree to expend an amount 
satisfactory to the state superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction for playground apparatus and 
equipment. Thus many rural schools in Colo- 
rado were permitted to secure playgrounds at 
slight expense and without respect to economic 

grounds in lower New York City adjacent to or used in con- 
nection with each schoolhouse to be erected thereafter; and 
the statute of New Jersey, of 1902, authorizing the provision 
of parks and playgrounds by county action. Cf. Chapter 338, 
New York State Laws of 1895, and chapter 227, New Jersey 
State Laws of 1902. 

^^The Playground, VI, 261-62. 

«o/bi(f., VII, 240-49. 

5i/6id., IX, 44-45. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 223 

conditions of the population affected, nor con- 
gestion, nor the fact of the existence of large 
expanses of open territory surrounding school 
property. 

The subject of play for rural communities 
occupied considerable attention at the fifth 
annual meeting of the Playground and Eecrea- 
tion Association of America, in 1911. Among 
the impressive addresses on the theme was that 
by Liberty H. Bailey who presented the possi- 
bilities contained in recreation for rural happi- 
ness and the awakening of a more highly 
organized country life. In that year, also, Ham- 
ilton County, Tennessee, and Johnson County, 
North Carolina, each engaged a supervisor-of- 
play to direct play activities in all of the schools 
of the county, while Pierce County, Washington, 
erected play apparatus and play sheds, construct- 
ing a $3,000 gymnasium in District 74. 

Efforts to organize juvenile play in rural 
communities frequently took the form of ''corn 
clubs," ''calf clubs" or "pig clubs," respectively, 
with prizes given to the best product exhibited in 
competition. During 1912, thirteen hundred 
' ' corn clubs ' ' with a total membership of twenty- 
five thousand were organized in Oklahoma. 
Since then similar clubs have become common 
throughout the Middle West. 

The provision of facilities in rural communi- 
ties was not long confined to the play interests 
of children; adult activities were organized in 



224 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the country as soon as, if not before, they were 
given commensurate consideration in the cities. 
In this manner rural life shared with urban com- 
munities in the development of social centers in 
schoolhouses. The first "social center" confer- 
ence in America, it is interesting to note in this 
connection, was called by a farmers' periodical 
and attended very largely by agricultural 
people.^^ This meeting was held at Dallas, 
Texas, February 17, 1911, eight months prior to 
the national social center conference at Madi- 
son, Wisconsin. In harmony with this gathering, 
as stated above in the analysis of the "neighbor- 
hood organization" stage, the state superintend- 
ent of West Virginia during the summer of 
1913, called for one thousand volunteers from 
among the seven thousand rural teachers in the 
state to organize their respective neighborhoods 
into social centers "for the purpose of social, 
recreational, and intellectual benefits." More 
than a thousand teachers responded. In 1916, a 
National Conference on Community Centers met 
in New York, and again in 1917, in Chicago. 
These meetings were attended by people from 
practically every large city and many rural com- 
munities. One of the most interesting addresses 
at the latter conference was made by the teacher 
of a one-room rural school in Missouri, telling 
what had been accomplished by her neighborhood 

^-Cf. Social Centers in the Southwest, Holman and Murphy, 
1912. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 225 

in organized play.^^ During 1918, attention was 
centered on the leisure problems of the war camp 
and war industry communities; but since that 
year efforts have become general again attempt- 
ing to make adjustments in all communities 
through municipal and county playgrounds and 
community centers, through ''play in education" 
in both rural and urban schools, and through 
"community service" and "community organi- 
zation" emphasizing self-governing and self-sup- 
porting play as a group function and irrespective 
of social or industrial features of particular 
communities. 

From the above survey of developments since 
1906, it may be inferred that provision for play 
is no longer considered a necessity merely in con- 
gested sections of urban communities. It is now 
conceived to be a national problem occasioned by 
the social maladjustments arising from conges- 
tion and immigration in the city and isolation in 
the country, and culminating in attempts to make 
adjustments to the changed social situation every- 
where. In the words of Joseph Lee,^* play is an 
antidote to modern civilization, whether urban or 
rural, which he conceives may be characterized by 

the banishment of ideals through the perfecting of means 
which could be valuable only in service of them, the eultiva- 

53Cf. H. S. Curtis, Play and Recreation for the Oven 
Country, Ginn & Co., 1914, for specific examples of what has 
been accomplished in rural recreation. 

s*Joseph Lee, "Play as an Antidote to Civilization," TM 
Playground, 1911, pp. 110-26. 



226 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

tion of utilities at the expense of ultimates, a national disease 
to be remedied by more opportunity to live as we go along. 

And in the words of Robert A. Woods :°^ 

The social recreation of young people is in every sort of 
community a problem of anxious significance. 

While Professor T. N. Carver^® has asserted: 

it is now clear that the economic prosperity of the farmer 
instead of making him and his family satisfied to remain on 
the farm, only the sooner leads them to move to a town or 
city. Neighborhood cultural organization in the open coun- 
try thus appears to be not merely a matter of sentimental 
interest but of the most substantial concern. 

E. From philanthropic to community sup- 
port and control. An analysis of the methods 
by which the movement has derived financial sup- 
port and exercised local control of facilities for 
play discloses a transition from ** philanthropic" 
to ** community" administration in which tran- 
sitory emphasis was placed upon ** public" con- 
trol and support. The ** philanthropic" method 
of administration, as the term is here used, sig- 
nifies that by which both the original cost of 
construction and equipment and the subsequent 
expenditures for operation of facilities are met 
by funds secured entirely by donations or sub- 
scriptions and without subsidy either from the 
public treasury or by admission fees, member- 
ship dues, or other finances paid by those 
patronizing the facilities. It further implies 

5SR, A. Woods, "The Neighborhood In Social Reconstruc- 
tion," American Sociological Society Papers and Proceedings, 
1913. 

5«T. N. Carver, "Rural Community Organization," V. 8. 
Dept. of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1914, pp. 89-113. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 227 

that both the disbursement of the funds and the 
leadership of activities is made by an authority 
other than that of the government and of the 
people who participate in those activities. The 
earliest adjustments undertaken by the move- 
ment were '* philanthropic. " This method pre- 
vailed exclusively throughout the ''sand garden" 
and ''model playground" stages." 

In Boston, as ^hown in the analysis of the 
origin of the movement above, the sand gardens 
were operated by the Masachusetts Emergency 
and Hygiene Association, the sand itself being 
donated by a certain firm in that city, while the 
sites were mission chapel and nursery yards ex- 
clusively during the first three years. 

Brooklyn did pioneering work in 1889 when 
its society for Parks and Playgrounds was incor- 
porated under a statute of New York. The first 
playground established in one of its parks was 
conducted during the summer of 1897 by a group 
of philanthropic people. New York Society for 
Parks and Playgrounds opened the first play- 
ground in that city in 1890. In 1895 a small 
summer playground was opened by philan- 
thropists,"^^ in the back yard of the Nurses 

s^The only possible exceptions to philanthropic provision 
during the first two stages of the naovement were: (a) the 
construction of the Charlesbank Outdoor Gymnasium in Bos- 
ton in 1889-91; (6) the purchase of Franklin Field, Boston, 
in 1894; (c) the acquirement of land for "small parks" in 
New York, 1895-9; (d) the equipment of a playground in a 
park in Louisville, in 1899. But each of these facilities were 
supervised, if at all, by philanthropy. 

58Cf. Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philan- 
thropy, p. 125. 



228 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Settlement, while on May 1, 1896, Miss Grace 
Dodge equipped another at the corner of Seventh 
Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street. About this 
time the Union Settlement maintained a play- 
ground on South One-hundred-and-fourth street. 
The number of playgrounds in New York, until 
1898, was limited to a half-dozen similar at- 
tempts, including those made by the Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor, in con- 
nection with their vacation schools. That year 
the board of education took charge of the vaca- 
tion schools and established twenty playgrounds 
in connection with them. That year, also, the 
Outdoor Recreation League, comprising nineteen 
societies, was organized in New York.^** During 
its first year the league conducted the Hudson 
Bank playground at Fifty-third Street and Elev- 
enth Avenue, while during its second it con- 
structed the "model playground" at Seward Park. 
In Philadelphia and Providence the first play- 
grounds were established by philanthropic per- 
sons and societies. In the former, one was 
provided by two people in 1893, while during the 
following winter the City Park Association, 
assisted by the Civic Club, the Culture Extension 
League, and the College Settlement, agitated the 
question, opening a playground the following 
summer. In the latter city, the first playground 
was conducted in 1894 by the Union for Practical 
Progress assisted by the Provident Free Kinder- 

'"Cf. Constitution of the Outdoor Recreation League. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 229 

garten Association. Playgrounds were main- 
tained by these two societies until 1897, when, 
upon the disbanding of the Union, the work was 
continued for several years by the Association. 

Chicago established a playground in 1894 on 
land donated by a philanthropist and under the 
auspices of Hull-House. A similar provision 
was made by the Northwestern University Settle- 
ment in 1896, through the generosity of a small 
group of interested persons and the University 
of Chicago Settlement in 1898. During the sum- 
mer of 1897, the West End District of the Asso- 
ciated Charities maintained a playground in the 
yard of the Washington Street school, and during 
the following five years, another on a vacant lot 
near Hull-House. Pittsburgh opened its first 
playgrounds in 1896 under the auspices of the 
Civic Club of that city and supported by dona- 
tions. Baltimore began in 1897 through efforts 
of the Children's Playground Association, a 
department of the United Women of Maryland. 
Sand gardens or playgrounds for older children 
were conducted by Women's clubs in Cleveland, 
Minneapolis, Denver, and San Francisco in 1898. 

The concept of public provision for play 
received emphasis about 1900, but it was a decade 
before one-half of the cities maintaining facili- 
ties did so either wholly or in part by public 
funds and management, while in 1915 the extent 
of public provision had reached only 57 per cent; 
yet from the "model playground" to the ''neigh- 



230 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

borhood organization" stage, the promoters of 
the movement urged governmental administration. 
** Public" provision involves the construction and 
administration of facilities for play exclusively 
from finances derived by public taxation and 
without additional revenue obtained through 
philanthropic or other sources. It implies super- 
vision by public officials whether elected, 
appointed,' 'or selected by civil service. This 
method of provision has included six types of 
application: (1) the equipment and supervision 
of schoolyards by boards of education; (2) the 
construction of both outdoor and indoor facilities 
in public parks; (3) the formation of ''boards of 
recreation," or equivalent bodies, to develop 
new facilities and correlate existing agencies into 
a functional whole; (4) the wider use of the 
school plant; (5) the regulation of commercial 
dance halls and the provision of ''municipal" 
dances; (6) recreational legislation. 

Permission to construct playgrounds on 
schoolyards was given by the school committee 
of Boston as early as 1888, and $1,000 was appro- 
priated by the city council of Philadelphia for the 
construction and maintenance of four sand gar- 
dens on public schoolyards in 1895, yet in 1897 
a committee appointed by Mayor Strong of New 
York^° reported: 

New York has as yet not a single municipal playground, 
and not yet a school playground worthy of the name. 

^"Abram S. Hewitt was chairman and Jacob Riis, secre- 
tary. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 231 

The following year the board of education took 
over all of the playgrounds conducted on school- 
yards and established others so as to bring the 
total up to twenty. The next year they increased 
the number to thirty-one, and in 1900 there were 
reported to be some seventy facilities of all types, 
open air gymnasiums, sand gardens, recreation 
piers, roof gardens, swimming pools, evening 
play centers. This was the most extensive pub- 
lic provision by any community at that time. 

In the construction of both indoor and out- 
door facilities for play in the public parks, 
Boston^^ and New York^^ did pioneering work, 
but Chicago established the standard concept of 
public support and control, when, in 1903, the 
voters of the South Park District approved a 
$5,000,000 bond issue for the purchase of four- 
teen tracts of ten to sixty acres each to be 
equipped as all-year play centers for all ages of 
people. In 1907 the first outdoor play festival 
in connection with a modern play center was 
held in Ogden Park, Chicago, on the closing day 
«f the first convention of the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America. This event attracted con- 
siderable attention to the South Park method of 
provision as indicated by the following state- 
ment/^ 

siReference is here made to Charlesbank and Franklin 
Field, Boston. 

^2New York possessed sites for four small parks in 1902, 
cf. the analysis of the "small park" stage, above. 

^^Annual Report of South Park Commissioners, 1909, p. 13. 



232 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

The possession of so many splendid plants equipped for 
social service has imposed a leadership on the South Park 
Commissioners, and as a consequence, they are frequently 
called upon for advice and information as to the methods 
of operation, and for plans and statistics that will inform 
and arouse the public in other cities. The South Park field- 
houses, it may be said, are regarded as the laboratories for 
the whole country; and they are, in consequence, serving in 
a patriotic way the nation, and not the South Park District 
alone. 

Next to the Playground Association of Amer- 
ica, the South Parks have been the greatest force 
in molding opinion concerning public responsi- 
bility for play. The following statement of their 
superintendent of recreation, written eight years 
after the first small park was completed, is indic- 
ative of the concept of "public" control and 
support that was being emphasized during the 
''recreation center" stage r*^* 

Municipal expenditure of money is largely traditional. 
Large public buildings, sums for conventional improvements 
such as streets, etc., are accepted as proper even though no 
idea of the return is general among the citizens. The public 
furnishes educational institutions, books, and teachers for a 
few hours of the minor's day, but is not yet familiar with 
the needs of the longer period of the life of every individual 
in the community. Recreation is a function of municipal 
government, and many municipalities are intelligently attack- 
ing the need. 

The third type of application of the concept 

of the ''public" method of providing for play, 

the formation of special commissions to correlate 

existing agencies as well as provide new ones, 

^*J. R. Richards, Annual Report South Park Commission' 
ers, 1913, p. 45. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 233 



was first made in Los Angeles when a playground 
commission was created in September, 1904. A 
board of recreation was appointed in Philadel- 
phia in 1909 and another in New York in 1914. 
Table XIII gives the number of cities, by years, 
conducting play centers under a special commis- 
sion responsible to municipal government. 

TABLE XIII* 
The Number of Cities Conducting Playgeounds by Play- 
ground Commissions from 1910 to 1915 



Year 


1909 


1910 


1911 


1912 


1913 


1915t 


Number 

Total reporting. . . 


15 

89 


17 
184 


31 

257 


33 

285 


31 
342 


55 
432 



*These statistics represent only the number of cities re- 
sponding to requests for information sent out by the Associa- 
tion and in which supervised playgrounds were being main- 
tained. 

fThe report for 1915 includes that for 1914 also. 

The fourth type of application, the wider use 
of the school plant, was incorporated in the con- 
cept of '^ public" control and support after the 
development of the "social and civic" centers in 
the schoolhouses of Eochester,*'^ N. Y., in 1907-9, 
and the discussion of the ''schoolhouse as a social 
center" at the meeting of the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America in 1909, while perhaps the 
most highly organized examples are those of New 
York.^® During the school year, 1912-13, one 
hundred twenty-six cities reported the provision 
by boards of education of heat, light, and janitor 

^^Cf. discussion of the "recreation center" stage above, for 
analysis of the Rochester experiment. 

^f'Cf. discussion of the "neighborhood organization" stage 
above. 



234 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

service incidental to the evening use of school 
buildings as play centers, while seventy-one 
reported nearly twenty-one hundred paid work- 
ers. Over five hundred schoolhouses were used 
as polling places, nearly as many for political 
meetings, more than three hundred for exhibits, 
and over six hundred for motion pictures. ^^ In 
1915 the field secretaries of the Playground and 
Recreation Association of America aided in the 
establishment of play centers in the public school- 
houses of Milwaukee, and in 1917 the Association 
met in that city. In 1916 the ''social" centers 
in schools and the outdoor playgrounds of Grand 
Rapids were placed under one superintendent. 

The fifth type of application, the inspection 
of commercialized recreational institutions and 
the provision of "municipal" dances, gained 
greatest popularity about 1912-14; while about 
the same time, the sixth, that of legislation, also 
developed. Both were indicative of the "pub- 
lic" method of support and control as analysed 
in the discussion above of the "civic art and wel- 
fare" stage."'* Table XIV summarizes the devel- 
opment of "public" administration from 1910, 
the first year concerning which complete statis- 
tics are available, to 1915, and discloses an 
advance from 34 to 57.8 per cent of the total num- / 
ber of cities reporting supervised playgrounds 
during those five years. 

«7Cf. C. A. Perry, Social Centers of 1912-13, Russell Sage 
Foundation, Department of Recreation, pamphlet No. R, 135. 
«''Cf. pp. 125-29 above. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 235 



The earliest ** public" provisions were made 
free of all charges to persons utilizing their 
respective opportunities. This fact was one of 
the distinctive features of the method of admin- 
istration of the South Park recreation centers in 
which baths, lockers, gymnasium classes, club 

TABLE XIV 
The Progress of "Public" Support and Control in the Play 

Movement 



Year 


1910 


1911 


1912 


1913 


1915* 


Total No. of cities report- 












ing supervised play 


184 


257 


285 


342 


432 


No. of cities with "public" 












provision wholly or in 












part 


121 


152 


193 


226 


312 


No. with provision entirely 












by the "public" method. . 


62 


88 


99 


111 


182 


No. with "public" provision 












only in part 


59 


72 


94 


115 


130 


Percentage of cities with 




"public" provision wholly 


34 


34.2 


34.7 


34.4 


57.8 



*No reDort was Dublished for 1914. 



meetings, band concerts, tennis courts, ball fields, 
and the privilege of reserving the assembly hall 
were available without either rentals or admis- 
sion fees. It is only within the last three years 
that small fees are required for the use of given 
facilities, and these in the large parks not the 
small ones. Boston charged two cents for a 
towel and bath in the ''public" gymnasiums; 
Chicago, ten cents for a suit, locker, and towel at 
the municipal beaches. In other cities, small 
fees were asked for the use of the schoolhouse 
and other public halls. This modification of the 
"public" method led to the concept of "commun- 
ity" support and control. This plan retains 



236 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

'' public" iconstruction, ownership, and general 
management of facilities, but permits both finan- 
cial assistance and supervision of activities by 
local groups, such as ''neighborhood associa- 
tions" and ''community councils" organized in 
the respective play centers, whose membership is 
usually based upon residence in the vicinity 
rather than upon the payment of a fee, and whose 
objects are non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-com- 
mercial. These groups are permitted by the 
body in general charge of the centers to receive 
admission fees- to certain programs presented 
under their auspices, to collect membership dues 
and solicit funds for community purposes, and to 
decide to what use the money procured by their 
efforts may be devoted. "Self-support" and 
"self-government," as these terms were defined 
above in the analysis of the "neighborhood or- 
ganization" stage, are the two distinctive traits 
of the "community" method. The explanations 
given by the advocates of this method, as stated 
above, were two: justice to other neighborhoods 
in the city in which no "public" provision may 
as yet have been made, and the supplementation 
of the resources of the city so as to make possible 
adequate "public" provision in all neighbor- 
hoods.®^ 

The "community" method was first advo- 
cated by M. M. Davis, in 1910, after an investi- 

"^It was estimated by Gulick in 1913, tbat the "puMic" 
facilities for play in New York were adequate for only 5 per 
cent of the population. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 237 

gation of play and commercialized amusements 
in New York under the auspices of the Eussell 
Sage Foundation^" Two features characterized 
the concept as he formulated it: self-government 
under the general supervision of municipal offi- 
cials, and financial contribution in rentals toward 
the maintenance of the ^'public" property whose 
facilities organized groups made use of. The 
following year a committee of play leaders in 
New York^^ declared the ''community" method 
to be the only satisfactory solution of the leisure 
problem, since the sum required for ''public" 
provision sufficient for the city was beyond the 
resources of taxation, however much philan- 
thropy might aid it, because other demands upon 
the tax-budget were many and increasing; and 

™Cf. M. M. Davis, The Exploitation of Pleasure, Russell 
Sage Foundation pamphlet, 1910, p. 60. "The administra- 
tion of the few regular meeting places which have thus far 
been provided in New York has rarely been such as to render 
them acceptable to adults. Managing meeting-rooms in the 
school-building is one thing when they are to be occupied by 
boys and girls of seventeen, as in the recreation centers; quite 
another thing when the tenants are men of twenty-five. Here 
appears a clear line of division between two policies: 

"First: In dealing with children and adolescents, where 
the thought behind the work is educational, the facilities of- 
fered should be free, and positive supervision should be exer- 
cised; 

"Second: In dealing with adults, unless the advantages 
offered are avowedly educational, like lectures, or classes in 
English for foreigners, the people should be treated as re- 
sponsible citizens of a democracy; a rental should be charged 
for rooms furnished, and only negative supervision exercised 
(that is responsible city employees always in the building, 
accessible at need). Deposits in advance should be required 
when necessary to ensure responsibility." 

■^iMemorandum on Recreation, addressed to the New York 
Board of Estimate and Apportionment by its sub-committee. 



238 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

since the people were entitled to opportunities 
for the creation, government, and support of play 
beyond those furnished by ''public" provision 
at any time. But the recommendation of this 
committee was not approved until the "neighbor- 
hood organization" stage of the movement. The 
Playground and Recreation Association of 
America continued advocacy of "public" admin- 
istration of play as it had since its organization 
in 1906, but at the National Community Centers 
Conference in New York in 1916, and again at 
the annual convention of the Association in 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, that autumn, the ques- 
tion of "community" support and control was 
the dominant one.^^ Since the development of 
"community service," the method of "commun- 
ity" support and control has been followed in 
cities almost as extensively as in rural districts, 
as shown above in the analysis of the "neighbor- 
hood organization" and "community service" 
stages. At present, the leading city is New York. 
Thus it has been shown that the "philanthropic" 
method characterized the "sand garden" and 
"model playground" stages; the "public," that 
of the "small park," "recreation center," and 

^2Cf. The Community Center, magazine, Feb. 3, 1917, for 
reprint of papers read at botli the New York and Grand Rapids 
conferences Including: (a) Jean Hamilton, "Self-Governing 
Working Girls' Clubs"; (6) Pauline Witherspoon, "How the 
Louisville Community Centers Grew"; (c) L. H. Gulick, "The 
Opportunity of the Community Center" and "Freedom Through 
Self-Support"; (d) Edward M. Barrows, "The Meaning of Self- 
Support." Also consult, The Playground, June, 1916, articles 
by H. S. Braucher, and J. R. Richards. 




A "SELF-SUPrOETING AND SELF-GOVERNING" SOCIAL DANCE, 
HAMILTON PARK, CHICAGO 




A COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND GOVERNED JUNIOR DRAMATIC 
HAMILTON PARK CAST, "HOUSE OF THE HEART" 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 239 

"civic art and welfare"; and the "community," 
that of the "neighborhood organization" and 
' ' community service. ' ' 

F. From "free play" and miscellaneous 
activities to "directed play" and correlated 
schedules. The earliest adjustments made by 
the play movement consisted of unsupervised 
spaces, equipped with simple apparatus, such as 
sand piles, buckets, shovels, swings, teeters, and 
designed for ' ' free play " ; or that which is unor- 
ganized by a leader other than a member of the 
group involved, although it may be groupal as 
well as individualistic, taking the form of a game, 
that is, having certain rules and leading to a con- 
clusion. In this sense of the term, the sand gar- 
dens during their first two years provided 
opportunities only for "free play," each garden 
being in charge of a woman "to keep watch and 
ward. ' ''^ 

One, a poor little creature, who confessed to having an 
unsatisfactory husband, and was therefore eager for distrac- 
tion, gave her whole attention to the care of the children ; the 
others were kindly neighbors, who brought their sewing to 
their windows and looked out occasionally to utter a reproof 
when a quarrel was on. 

During the summer of 1887, women were em- 
ployed, for the first time, to supervise the 
gardens. They were given the title of "matron" 
because that of "teacher" in Boston at that time 
signified a person with sufficient pedagogical 

^3Ellen M. Tower, "Sand Gardens and Playgrounds," World 
Wide, April 26, 1902. 



240 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

training to merit a certificate from the school 
committee.'* In 1893 a superintendent and corps 
of assistants with some kindergarten training 
were employed. 

Digging in the sand and playing games were the first 
entertainments offered. Then kindergarten plays and occu- 
pations seemed possible in the open air, and a kindergartner 
was engaged for each yard; not necessarily as head matron, 
for that position requires more than education. It demands 
tact, patience, love of children, a sense of justice, and the 
force of character necessary to make these qualities felt, and 
to command the obedience of the children.^^ 

As late as 1902 the title "matron" was given 
to those persons in charge of the sand gardens, 
although it no longer described their function. 

We designate the caretakers as matrons .... but it is 
an inappropriate title, as many of them are young and charm- 
ing girls, graduates of State Normal Schools, or of Normal 
Kindergarten classes, or of Schools of Physical Culture, or 
Gymnastics. Others are teachers who need money, or who 
become weary of idleness in the long vacation.^^ 

The maximum development of the concept of 
''supervised" or "directed play" attained dur- 
ing the "sand garden" stage is indicated by the 
following description of "one yard in partic- 
ular ' ' : 

It would be difficult to find a prettier picture than it pre- 
sented with its two sunny-haired matrons, one wearing a soft 
grey gown and quaint muslin cap, the other hatless, her head 
bared to sun and wind, surrounded by their busy, happy chil- 
dren — the cool shadows from the precious trees fallinjj about 
them. Not far away, a visitor who came regularly every 

74Ellen M. Tower, loc. cit. 
''^Ibid. 7«7bid. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 241 

week, one of Boston's higli-born daughters, sitting in the 
center of a ring of not too clean boys and girls, singing to 
them and with them, and then listening and watching while 
they sang their street songs, or some precocious infant did a 
cake walkJ'^ 

The early playgrounds for older children, 
with the exception of the ''model" ones, and the 
''small parks," like the first "sand gardens" 
were inadequately supervised. Many of these 
were unsuccessful, as the twenty schoolyard play- 
grounds opened by Mayor Quincy of Boston 
during the summer of 1898, and some were closed 
upon complaint of the neighbors because of anti- 
social situations created by them,^® as in Phila- 
delphia, Denver , Indianapolis, and St. Paul. 
The first explanations given for the failure of the 
unsupervised playgrounds were such as those of 
Lee, first, that the more orderly boys were at 
work during the day, and second, that the num- 
ber of playgrounds was insufficient;^^ while the 

"02). cit. 

'^^Cf. Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philan- 
thropy; A. and L. Leland, Playground Technique and Play- 
craft. 

■^^Cf. Joseph Lee, Constructive and Preventive Philan- 
thropy, pp. 171-2. "The better class of big boys are at work 
during the day, leaving the less desirable class, made up of 
those youths of elegant leisure who live on their mother's 
washing, to act the part of the petty tyrants of the local play- 
ground, stealing the little boys' bats and balls, breaking up 
their games, threatening them with dire penalties if they 
come there again, and enforcing these penalties when their 
commands are disobeyed. Possibly another reason why the 
unsupervised playgrounds in crowded districts are so little 
used may be because the demand is so far in excess of the 
supply. Boys interfere with each other, find organized games 
impossible, and get discouraged. It may be something like 
trying to fill a tumbler with a fire-engine hose." 



242 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

opposition to "directed play" was based on the 
belief that it was "autocratic," "upopular," 
"less beneficial, "*° and "unnecessary," since 
* ^ children do not need to be taught how to play. ' '^^ 
With increased experience, it was discovered that 
"free play" alone did not make possible the most 
socially productive use of the playground since 
the children had lost much of the play heritage of 
preceding generations,^^ while "directed play" 
was more popular, equally beneficial to those par- 
ticipating in it, and the only method of restoring 
the passing heritage and of preserving democ- 
racy on the playground.^^ The third annual 
meeting of the Playground Association of Amer- 
ica, 1909, was largely devoted to a discussion of 
the function of "directed play." An outline of 
a normal training course for play leaders was 
presented by one of the committees of the con- 
ference and recommended by the convention to 
both schools and playground departments. Since 
that date, attention has been given more and 
more to leadership instead of equipment in the 
concept of the structure and function of the 
movement, resulting in the development during 
the "neighborhood organization" and subsequent 
stage, of a technique for directing play. 

"oCf. H. S. Curtis, The Plmjground, p. 8, December, 1907. 

^'George E. Johnson, "Why Teach a Child to Play," and 
L. H. Gulick, "The Doctrine of Hands Off in Play," Proceedings 
of the Playground Associatioyi of America, III, pp. 289-65, 
357-65. 

82Cf. statement by Newell, on p. 8. 

s^Cf. ibid, and L. H. Gulick, "Play and Democracy," paper 
read at the first meeting of the Playground Association, 1907. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 243 

1. One phase of this development comprised 
the classification of all persons participating in the 
activities of the playground. The separation of 
the sexes in given activities has been followed 
since the ''model playground" stage. While the 
' ' sand gardens ' ' were provided for both boys and 
girls under ten years of age, in the "model play- 
ground" and subsequent stages the sexes above 
that age were separated in physical activities and 
apparatus and leadership provided appropriate 
to each. But in social, aesthetic, manual, and 
civic activities both sexes frequently participate 
in the same event. Classification according to 
age has involved four methods of grouping those 
who participate in play: earliest^ and briefest, 
that by Lee,^^ as shown by Table XV, and second, 

TABLE XV 
Age Periods of Play According to Lee 



Periods 



Characteristics 



Two to six years ... 
("Dramatic Age") 



Six to eleven 

("Big Injun Age") 
Eleven and over 

("Age of Loyalty") 



Imitative plays and games based 
upon the occupations of their eld- 
ers. 

Self-assertive activities; individual- 
istic games and competitive play. 

Co-operative play; gang life; team 
games; with "combination .... 
as a part of the game itself." 



that by Johnson, presented by Table XVI. In 
the former, three groups are made, while in the 
latter there are five, yet both involve persons 
under fifteen years of age, and each classification 

s4Joseph Lee, "Play as Medicine," Charities and Correc- 
tions, August 3, 1907. 



244 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

is familiar to all who have engaged in the direc- 
tion of playgrounds. That of Lee has been re- 
printed as a pamphlet and subsequently incor- 
porated in his volume, Play in Education; while 
Johnson's Education through Plays and Games 
is perhaps the best known book in the library of 
the movement. In a handbook published by the 
Playground and Recreation Association of Amer- 
ica, in 1919, these classifications have been 
reprinted, and playleaders referred to the vol- 
umes of both Lee and Johnson. 

TABLE XVI 
Age Periods of Play According to Johnson 



Periods 



Characteristics 



Under three years 

Three to six years 

Seven to nine years... 

Ten to twelve years — 

Thirteen to fifteen years 



Motor activity and sensory play. 

Plays of imitation and imagination. 

Individual and competitive games; 
"it" games. 

Group games, competitive, lowly or- 
ganized. 

Co-operative play; group competi- 
tion; teams. 



Since the age periods of both Lee and 
Johnson do not involve persons above the fif- 
teenth year, while the play movement during the 
^'recreation center" and later stages has in- 
cluded groups of older persons, two classifica- 
tions have, therefore, been made of all persons 
attending the recreation centers. That of the 
school board of New York roughly separates 
those under seventeen from those over that age, 
providing ''junior recreation centers" for the 

s^Cf. Twentieth Annual Report Superintendent of Schools, 
New York, 1918. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 246 

former, and "senior" for the latter.®^ That by 
the South Parks, Chicago, makes four age groups 
of those attending the neighborhood centers, 
eight of those attending the gymnasium classes, 
and two of those participating in other activities, 
junior and senior, respectively.^*^ 

TABLE XVII 

The Fouk Age Gkoups of Persons Attending Neighborhood 

Centers, According to the South Park Classification 



Group one. 
Group two. 



Group three . 
Group four. . 



Little children under ten years of age. 

Those between eleven and fifteen years, at- 
tending indoor gymnasium classes and 
participating in athletics. 

Those between fifteen and twenty-five, 
chiefly attending social, aesthetic, and 
physical activities. 

The men and women of the neighborhood, 
some of whom attend gymnasium, but 
most of whom are interested in social 
aesthetic and civic activities. 



For each of the four groups a separate sched- 
ule of activities is arranged by the South Park 
plan of administration of recreation centers. 
Table XVIII gives the age divisions made of 
those attending the indoor gymnasium classes 
conducted from October to May. 

An analysis of Table XVIII shows an attempt 
to place children below seven years under the in- 
structor in the women's gymnasium, to group 
older children of both sexes approximately ac- 
cording to the same age divisions, and separation 
of the younger from the older adults because of 
the ability of the former for more vigorous games. 

Classification according to weight of persons 
attending the playgrounds is made so as to insure 

86Cf. Unpublished handbook for directors and instructors 
of the South Parks playgrounds, 1917. 



246 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



competition between those of like development 
and ability. The weights that are employed in 
the standard competitions are as follows: in bas- 
ket ball, 95 pounds grammar school, 95, 105, 115, 
125, 135, and unlimited closed, and unlimited 
open; in soccer, 90, 110, and 125 closed; in play- 
ground ball, 75, 90, 110, and 135 closed; in track 

TABLE XVIII 

Age Grouping of Persons Attending South Park Indoor 

Gymnasiums 



Men's Gymnasium 



Women's Gymnasium 



Boys 7 to 9 years old. 
Boys 9 to 11 years old. 
Boys 12 to 15 years old. 
Boys 16 to 18 years of age. 
Employed boys of 16 to 18. 
Younger business men. 
Older business men. 



Boys and Girls, 4 to 7 years old. 
Girls 7 to 9 years of age. 
Girls 9 to 11 years of age. 
Girls 11 to 13 years of age. 
Girls 13 to 15 years of age. 
Employed girls of 16 to 18. 
Younger women (unmarried). 
Older women (married). 



and field athletics, 105, and unlimited closed, and 
unlimited open; and in wrestling, 105, 115, 125, 
135, 145, 156, and unlimited closed divisions. The 
term "closed division" signifies that competition 
to which only those who are registered in the 
given playground league and have not competed 
elsewhere at any time are eligible ; that of * ' open 
division" signifies that to which those who may 
have competed in a high school, a Y. M. C. A. or 
other league are eligible. This is a fourth classi- 
fication of those participating in playground 
activities; while a fifth divides them into two 
groups, the "novice" and the "classified"; and, 
a sixth into the "amateur" and the "profes- 
sional." A "novice" is one who has not won a 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 247 

first, second, or third place in any event; a 
"classified" person is one who has done so. An 
''amateur" is one who has never competed for a 
money prize, nor imder a false name nor with 
professionals, nor where gate money was charged, 
nor served as a teacher of athletics with salary 
paid directly or indirectly, while a ''professional" 
is any person who competes under one or more 
of these five conditions. A seventh classification 
is that by height, sometimes applied to volley- 
ball competition by girls, the division being made 
at five feet. 

2. The classification of play leaders, as well 
as those attending the centers, disclosed a further 
development of "directed play." Table XIX 
shows four types of supervisors of play and their 
respective titles, qualifications, and functions, 
that apply in all communities in which a system 
of play centers is maintained by park or school 
boards, or by a recreation commission or depart- 
ment of municipal government, or where "com- 
munity service" is established. 

3. The training of play supervisors, a prom- 
inent feature of the "community service" stage, 
has nevertheless been practiced by city play- 
ground departments and school boards since the 
publication of the outlines for a normal course 
of study for play leaders by the Playground Asso- 
ciation of America in 1909. Baltimore has trained 
all its leaders, except its superintendents, in that 
manner. Sixty-three cities offered normal courses 



248 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



TABLE XIX 
Classification of Play Leaders According to Type, 
Qualifications and Responsibilities 



Title, 



Type 



General 

supervisory 
capacity. 



Local super- 
V i s ry ca- 
pacity. 



Detailed 
leadership. 
Class A, 



Detailed 
leadership. 
Class B. 



Title 



Superintendent 
of Recreation 
or Recreation 
Secretary. 



25 years of 
age, college 
education, ad- 
ministr a t i v e 
experience and 
executive abil- 
ity, equal to 
superintendent 
of schools. 



Director of 
Playground, 
Park, or Rec- 
reation Center. 



Instructor 1 n 
Outdoor Play- 
ground or, In- 
d o o r Gymna- 
sium, entirely 
resp o n s i b 1 e 
for section of 
play center. 



Coach, Teach- 
er, Instructor, 
or Social 
Worker. R e - 
sponsible for 
given activity. 



Qualifications Responsibilities 



21 years of 
age, of college 
education, 
executive abil- 
ity. Open to 
men and 
women. 



21 years of 
age, of high 
school or col- 
lege education, 
including tech- 
n i c a I knowl- 
edge of games 
and athletics. 
Open to men 
and women. 



21 years of 
age, possessing 
technical skill 
i n particular 
subject taught 



Chief executive 
and administra- 
tor for a play' or 
recreation s y s - 
tern, provided by 
a school or park 
board, or depart- 
ment or commis- 
sion of recreation 
for a city. 



Head, promoter, 
and guide to all 
activities of a 
single playground 
or recreation cen- 
ter; collector of 
statistics of uses 
of local center. 



Leader and coach 
in all games, cal- 
isthenics, athletic 
competition; fre- 
quently also in 
story telling, 
story playing, and 
dramatics. 



Coach or director 
of dramatic club, 
chorus; or teacher 
of domestic sci- 
ence, social danc- 
ing, or other spe- 
cial types of play. 



diiring the winter of 1910-11. Cleveland en- 
rolled over three hundred in evening classes in 
1913. The most elaborate scheme of normal train- 
ing was developed in Pittsburgh, in 1915, through 
the co-operation of the local playground associa- 



• TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 249 

tion and the University of Pittsburgh. Since the 
Washington, D. C, school for ''community 
service" workers in 1918, practically all cities in 
which "community service" has been organized 
have conducted classes in community singing, 
community drama and pageantry, or other activi- 
ties. Courses of study have also been organized 
in a great number of colleges, normal schools, kin- 
dergarten training schools, and schools of physi- 
cal education, and of social work, while a few 
private schools have been organized for the train- 
ing of play directors. During 1910, seventeen 
schools and colleges reported the use of the 
''normal course in play" prepared by the Asso- 
ciation. 

4. The organization of amateur athletic and 
team game competition is another phase of the 
development of "directed play." This field of 
activities involves contests between teams .from 
the various playgrounds and recreation centers 
of a city, or park department, or public school 
system. City championship series are often 
played. Baseball, indoor-ball, soccer, hockey, 
tennis, cricket, swimming meets, track meets, 
wrestling, and apparatus work are the usual 
events included. It was in conjunction with this 
phase of developments in supervised play that 
the classification of competitors as "novice" or 
"classified," "open" or "closed," and as "ama- 
teur" or "professional" was made, as defined 
above. ®^ 

s^Cf. Appendix B for a statement of the method by which 
athletics are organized in a given recreation system, the South 



250 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

5. The "efficiency test"®* was another device 
employed in the direction of play. It comprised 
a given number of events in which the boy or 
girl, for it is designed for both sexes of adolescent 
age, is required to compete against a given 
''standard" rather than against other contest- 
ants. It was designed to stimulate a more edu- 
cational use of the common playground facilities 
than that of unorganized or "free" play upon 
them. Its list of events, therefore, are "stunts" 
on the apparatus frame, "dashes" on the track, 
and jumping. The ' ' standards ' ' defined for each 
event are of three types, arranged in an ascend- 
ing order of difficulty in performance so as to 
accommodate the scheme to the changing ability 
of the group for whom it was designed. A 
"badge" or token of some kind is awarded each 
contestant who successfully meets the require- 
ments of each event in one or the other of the 
three groups of "standards"; that is, he must 
meet the requirements of each event of a given 
group before receiving a reward of any kind, not- 
withstanding any special ability he may have 
in performing some one of the "standards" in 
any other group. While the particular play- 
ground or system of recreation may differ in its 
choice of events as in its requirements for each, 



Parks, Chicago, also Appendix H gives athletic calendar fol- 
lowed in interpark competition. 

smother terms by which this test is known locally are: 
"badge test," "button test," "individual test," "athletic test." 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 261 

the Playground and Eecreation Association in 
1913 adopted a standard test as follows :^^ 

STANDARD EFFICIENCY TEST FOR BOYS 

First Test : 

Pull Up (chinning the bar) 4 times 

Standing Broad Jump 5 ft. 9 in. 

60-Yard Dash 8 3-5 seconds 

Second Test: 

Pull Up 6 times 

Standing Broad Jump 6 ft. 6 in. 

60-Yard Dash 8 seconds 

Or 100-Yard Dash 14 seconds 

Third Test: 

Pull Up 9 times 

Running High Jximp 4 ft. 4 in. 

220-Yard Run 28 seconds 

STANDARD EFFICIENCY TEST FOR GIRLS 

First Test: 

All Up Indian Club Race 30 seconds 

Basket-Ball Throwing Two goals in 2 minutes 

Balancing 24 feet in two trials 

Second Test: 

All Up Indian Club Race 28 seconds 

Basket-Ball Throwing. . . .Three goals in 2 minutes 
Balancing Beam, bag on head . . 24 feet in two trials 

A badge was designed by the Association for 
each of the three tests for the boys and for each 
of the tests for the girls, to be awarded upon cer- 
tification by the local playground authorities that 
a given test was satisfactorily met, providing the 
winner paid for the badge ''as a young man or 
woman at college elected to Phi Beta Kappa pays 

89Cf. The Playground, Vol. VII, pp. 58-59, and X, pp. 165- 
71, for revised test for girls. 



252 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

for the key awarded. ' ' All badges are of bronze 
and thus of little intrinsic value to emphasize that 
for which they stand. 

6. The teaching of swimming and life-saving 
and the organization of aquatic competition, in 
the place of mere "playing at will" in the water, 
is another evidence of a transition from "free" 
to ' ' directed play. ' ' Periodic instruction given in 
swimming pools, excursions to beaches under the 
chaperonage of play leaders, and aquatic "meets" 
conducted in both indoor and outdoor pools are 
among the forms which this type of direction has 
taken. The swimming meets are open to both 
sexes and all ages. The more common events are : 
the 50-, 100-, and 220-yard swims; the 50-yard 
TDreast stroke, and swim on back ; and diving. The 
individual or team obtaining the greater number 
of points is declared the winner.®" 

so Among the diving events are the following: 

IV2 back jack-knife 15 points 

Double corkscrew (2 full twists) 15 " 

11/2 back somersault with front twist 14 " 

11/2 gainer 14 " 

11/0 back somersault 13 " 

Standing corkscrew 12 " 

Hand stand dive with front somersault 12 " 

1/2 gainer with Va twist 12 " 

Standing lyo somersault 12 " 

1/2 gainer 10 " 

Running corkscrew 10 " 

Front jack-knife V2 back twist 10 " 

Running ly, somersault 10 " 

Back hand stand 8 " 

Standing back dive with front twist 8 " 

Plain back 7 " 

Back jack-knife 7 " 

Front hand stand 6 " 

Plain front 6 " 

Front jack-knife 6 " 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 253 

7. The supervision of "passive" as well as 
** active" play is a sixth phase of the transition 
from ' ' free " to " directed ' ' play. After the ' ' sand 
garden" and nntil the ''recreation center" stage, 
attention was given to vigorous, motor play. 
''Outdoor gymnasium" is a term synonymous 
with playground throughout the United States, 
while both the equipment and the organization of 
activities suggested vigorous rather than quiet, 
"active" instead of "passive," play. Adminis- 
trators of play facilities have prepared many sta- 
tistical tables and made glowing comments upon 
the energetic uses of their apparatus as they 
have heaped criticism upon sedentary amuse- 
ments. 

If young folks can be involved in active rather than 
passive recreation, the tide has, in nearly every ease, been 
turned from vicious pastimes to constructive pleasures.^^ 

Thus the needs of children physically handi- 
capped and of youth engaged in physical occupa- 
tions during the day were overlooked by many 
directors of play before the "recreation center" 
stage. Beginning then, and developed subse- 
quently, "passive" recreation has been organized 
for those physically or socially handicapped. It has 
also been observed that sustained "active" play 
is physically deleterious even to normal persons. 
Especially is the heart of the growing individual 
affected by vigorous activity if performed for 
long periods at a time. Therefore "marathon 

91E. B. DeGroot, Annual Report South Park Commissioners, 
Chicago, 1909, p. 111. 



254 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

races" have been tabooed from the track meet of 
the playground, and "girls' rules" have been 
arranged for basket-ball and other team-games 
while the "dashes" in which girls are permitted 
to participate are of shorter distance than those 
designed for boys. No longer is the whole day 
devoted to "physical" activities. Periods of 
"active" and vigorous play are alternated with 
"passive" and quiescent occupation. Increased 
attention to the role of "passive" play in the 
life of normal as well as subnormal persons has 
been given ever since the World War, first sug- 
gested by the needs of convalescent and handi- 
capped soldiers and sailors. New York perhaps 
leads in the organization of "passive" activities 
on the playground and in the recreation center. 
Generally the concept of the function of "pas- 
sive" play involves the following five ends: (1) 
to promote restful play; (2) to develop concen- 
tration; (3) to instill an element of quietude for 
the weaker child; (4) to provide safe play diver- 
sions; (5) to make the individual more than a 
mere spectator.^^ 

The activities involved in the direction of quiet 
play include : the story hour, story building, story 
playing; table games, such as checkers, caroms 
and carom pool ; declamatory, debating, dramatic 
and musical entertainments; bean bag, ring toss, 
and box-ball games; phonographic concerts; mo- 
tion pictures ; reading room and branch libraries ; 

3-Cf. Twentieth Annual Report Superintendent of Schools, 
New York, p. 201. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 255 

lectures and forums; construction 'Svork," such 
as paper and cardboard folding and cutting, raf- 
fia and reed craft, weaving and sewing, book 
binding, leather work, printing, photography, 
sketching, stenciling, drawing, making herbar- 
iums, sloyd, toy making, playing with dolls, 
building with blocks, "biogeography"; and mod- 
eling and ceramics. 

8. Co-operation between play centers for 
other purposes than that of athletic competition 
is an eighth feature in the transition from ' ' free ' ' 
to ''directed play." This aspect of supervision 
was analyzed above in the study of the "neigh- 
borhood organization "stage of the movement, 
the league of neighborhood school centers being 
the most complete example. The two common 
purposes of co-operation between centers is the 
stimulation of interest in given activities in the 
less highly organized centers and the promotion 
of self-support in all through the collective treat- 
ment of money-getting devices. 

9. The formulation of schedules of events, for 
the class period in the indoor gymnasium, the 
day in both the indoor gymnasium and the out- 
door playground, the week in both the indoor and 
outdoor gymnasium and the entire play center, 
and the annual calendar emphasizing the celebra- 
tion of holidays and the organization of festivals 
and sports belonging to the respective seasons. 
The sequence of activities incorporated in the 
schedule of a class period in the indoor gymna- 



256 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



slum involves three types, as shown by Table XX. 
The "progressive exercises" comprise twenty-five 
per cent of the period for men and thirty-five, for 
women; the "play group," thirty-five for men 
and forty, for women; while "competitive games" 
consume forty per cent for men and twenty-five, 
for women.^^ 

TABLE XX 

The Sequence of Activities in the Class Peeiod of an 
Indooe Gymnasium in a Recreia.tion Center 



Progressive Exercise 


Play Group 


Competitive Games 


1. 


Free exercises. 


1. 


Free play by 


1. Basket-ball. 


2. 


Light apparatus. 




graded groups. 


2. Volley-ball. 




(a) Dumb-bells. 


2. 


Games : 


3. Indoor baseball. 




(b) Indian clubs. 




(a) Singing. 


4. Wrestling. 




(c) Wands. 




(b) Low organi- 


5. Indoor track 


3. 


Heavy apparatus: 

(a) Buck. 

(b) Horse. 




zation, 
(c) Home and 
yard. 


athletics. 




(c) Booms. 


3. 


Social dancing: 






(d) Bars: 




(a) Women alone. 






(1) Parallel. 




(b) Men alone. 






(2) Horizontal. 


4. 


Children's parties. 




4. 


Tumbling. 




(a) Doll. 




5. 


Folk-dancing. 




(b) Stories. 




6. 


Gymnastic 




(c) Table. 






dancing. 


5. 


Socials (Informal 
good times, for 
boys and girls 
together). 





During the school vacation, a ' ' daily sequence ' ' 
of activities is arranged. It is based upon two 
facts: the temperature changes, and the groups 
attending the playground. With respect to the 
former, the day is divided into four periods: 
[a] the early morning hours prior to eleven 
o 'clock ; (h) the mid-day and early afternoon, the 

''^Cf. A7inual Report 8outh Park Commissioners, 1905, and 
the book of instructions to employees, 1917. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 257 



time of highest temperature, from eleven until 
four; (c) the later afternoon, between four and 
six; and (d) the evening period, from seven until 
closing time, which is nine-thirty or ten o'clock. 
The group attending the playground during the 
first period is predominately that of little chil- 
dren; during the second and third, children and 
youths who are not employed ; and during the last 
period the working boys and girls, and adults. 
There is some difference between the events of 
the men's and the women's gymnasiums, as the 
Tables XXI and XXII show. An analysis of these 

TABLE XXI 

Ttpical Daily Sequence in Men's Outdoor Playground, 

Attended by Boys Above Ten Years of Age, Showing 

Characteristic Events in Each Period 



8:30 to 11 a. m. 


11 to 4 p. m. 


4 to 6 p. m. 


7 to 10 p. m. 


1. Individual 


1. Apparatus 


1. Team 


1. Team 


instruction 


work 


coaching: 


co?-ching: 


on apparatus 


2. Badge test 


a, Track 


Track 


2. Games of 


training 


6, Play- 


2. Games 


low organi- 


3. Swimming 


ground 


3. Social 


zation 


pool 


ball 


hours 


3. Stunts 


4. Storytelling 


c, Baseball 


4. Apparatus 


4. Tennis 


5. Lunch days 


2. Apparatus 




5. Baseball 


6. Games 


work 
3. Games 





charts discloses a progression from vigorous 
games of both low and high organization in the 
first period to less strenuous events during the 
second, with a return to vigorous activities dur- 
ing the third and fourth as the temperature falls 
and older groups attend the playgrounds. 

The ** weekly sequence" was arranged in both 
the outdoor playground and the indoor gymna- 



258 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



slum to furnish greater variety to the activities 
from day to day. In the former, a typical 
sequence of this kind, involves vigorous activities 
every day, although the form may vary from team- 
games to track athletics, while features such as 
story telling, dramatics, picnics, social hours, 

TABLE XXII 

Typical Daily Sequence in Women's Outdoor Playground, 

Attended Also by Boys Under Ten Years of Age 



8:30 to 11 a. m. 


11 to 4 p. m. 


4 to 6 p. m. 


7 to 10 p. m. 


1. Swings and 


1. Swings: 


1. Badge test 


1. Personal 


see-saws 


a, Rope 


training 


talks on 


2. Individual 


ft, Lawn 


2. Training 


getting ac- 


instruction 


2. Storytelling 


for teams: 


quainted 


on apparatus 


3. Wading pool, 


Play- 


2. Running 


3. Sand court 


boats, etc. 


ground ball 


games 


work 


4. Svv'imming 


3. Vigorous 


3. Apparatus 


4. Tennis 


pool 


games 


4. Social 


5. Games for 


5. Quiet games 


4. Apparatus 


nights 


little 


6. Park picnics 


work 




children 


Lunch days 







badge tests, instruction in swimming, sand pile 
contests, and apparatus work are provided peri- 
odically. This does not mean that certain of 
these events may not occur daily, for the facilities 
are there and no one is forbidden to use them, 
but rather that instruction and direction are of- 
fered only at stated intervals. The weekly 
sequence of the indoor gymnasium is character- 
ized by two features : first, the members are classi- 
fied according to age and formed into seven or 
eight groups to insure fair competition between 
them and to enable the instructor to adapt the 
exercises to the psychic stage and physical ability 
of each group; and second, the use of a limited 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 259 



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260 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

number of periods by inter-group and inter- 
playground team-game competition, at which 
spectators are admitted. Each class or group, 
furthermore, meets two or three times per week, 
although members of these groups may also par- 
ticipate in league games held at other periods, as 
on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. Also, the 
hours between 5:30 and 7:30 each day are fre- 
quently devoted in the men's gymnasium to prac- 
tice games, while the corresponding periods are 
sometimes used by the women for the rehearsal 
of dancing and dramatic numbers on coming pro- 
grams.^* 

The necessity for a sequence in the gymna- 
siums, both indoor and outdoor, however, was 
found to be no greater than that of the recreation 
center as a whole. When a schoolhouse is being 
used as an evening recreation center, or a play- 
ground or fieldhouse has more than one room and 
its field of activities includes more events than a 
single play leader may direct in person, it has 
been found desirable to arrange the time for the 
meeting of the gymnasium classes for boys and 
girls of the same age at the identical hour of the 
day in order that these groups may thus be per- 
mitted to engage in another activity, such as a 
dramatic club, a mixed chorus, or a dance. This 
plan is known as the ** correlated schedule" of 
the play center. It is prepared through the co- 

9*Consult Appendices C and D for typical weekly schedules 
In the indoor men's and women's gymnasiums, South Park 
Commissioners, Chicago. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 261 

operation of the director of the center, the in- 
structors in each gymnasium, the coaches and 
teachers of special classes, and the leaders of the 
neighborhood groups. Its function is the social 
utilization of the leisure of those persons who 
attend gymnasium classes or other activities twice 
or three times a week, and who at other times are 
likely to develop a habit of loafing about the prem- 
ises when the classes to which they belong are not 
in session, thus nullifying the moral gains through 
organized play in which they participate. By 
such an arrangement as the "correlated schedule" 
each person frequenting the play center may be 
brought into contact with supervised play, and 
thus the efficacy of the playground or recreation 
center may be greatly increased.''^ 

As the ''daily schedule" led to the ''weekly 
sequence, ' ' so the ' ' correlated schedule ' ' led to the 
"annual calendar" by which definite objectives 
were conceived for each month and season of the 
year.^*' The first feature of this scheme was the 
division of the year into two periods : the "indoor 
season" from October to April; and the "out- 
door season" from May to September inclusive. 
During the former, activities are organized in 
the indoor gymnasiums, the assembly halls, and 
the clubrooms. Gymnasium classes are regis- 
tered, clubs for the study of music, dramatics, 

s^Cf. Appendices E and F for typical weekly schedules for 
entire play center. 

^•'Cf. Appendices G and H for annual calendars for a single 
center in 1915-16, and of the entire South Park system for 
1920-21. 



262 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

and dancing are organized, and social and civic 
events promoted. With the return of spring, the 
plan is reversed; indoor activities and organiza- 
tions are disbanded and outdoor sports are re- 
sumed. Certain facilities remain open through- 
out the year, such as the branch library, the 
locker and shower rooms, and the clubrooms and 
assembly hall for special social or civic activities. 
The second trait of the ' ' annual calendar ' ' of play 
is the emphasis which it gives to the celebration 
of holidays and the establishment of neighborhood 
festival customs, repeating given programs year 
by year until they become social heritages of the 
community. In time the neighboring population 
comes to look forward with joy to the possibility 
of participation in seasonal events and their or- 
ganization is thus facilitated. Repetition is essen- 
tial to success in community recreation, for by this 
means only may social standards be established 
and community attitudes maintained. Among the 
activities organized in a well supervised com- 
munity center are the mid-winter gymnastic exhi- 
bition, the spring festival, the Independence Day, 
and Labor Day, and Christmas celebrations, com- 
munity days, band concerts, community sings, 
indoor artist recitals, and lectures. 

The incorporation in the structure and the con- 
cept of the function of the play movement of 
attempts to group participants according to sex, 
age, weight, and as open or closed division, or 
novice or classified, or amateur or professional; 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 263 

to classify the supervisors of play according to 
their functions; to train these supervisors in the 
technique of directing play; to organize athletic 
competition between persons, teams within the 
local playground, and groups representing differ- 
ent playgrounds ; to develop co-operation between 
play centers for the exchange of talent and other 
functions of mutual benefit ; and to regulate activi- 
ties by the establishment of schedules for the 
class period, the day, the week, and the year, 
discloses a transition from ''free play" involv- 
ing miscellaneous activities to ''directed play" 
utilizing correlated schedules. 

G. From a simple to a complex field of activi- 
ties, involving manual, physical, aesthetic, social, 
and civic events. A comparison of the sand gar- 
dens with the structure and function of the play 
movement as conceived in its subsequent stages 
discloses a transition from a simple to a com- 
plex field of activities. In this development, em- 
phasis has been placed successively upon "man- 
ual," "physical," "aesthetic," "social," and 
"civic" events. The result, however, has been 
a cumulative one, in that each of the five types of 
activity is incorporated in the present structure 
and concept of the function of the movement. The 
meaning of each type and the history of its incor- 
poration in the field of activities is as follows. 

At the inception of the "sand garden" stage, 
the occupation of the groups attending the play- 
grounds was exclusively "manual," that is, a type 



264 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

of play in which the distinctive feature was handi- 
craft, such as molding the sand, digging in it with 
little shovels, filling little buckets with sand and 
emptying them again, cutting and folding paper, 
and sewing. The explanation for this restriction 
is indicated by the following quotation from the 
chairman of the committee then in charge of the 
sand gardens of Boston, in which frank acknowl- 
edgement is made of an attempt to imitate the 
provisions for the play of little children in Ber- 
lin, the prototype of the first adjustments in this 
country.^'^ 

There .... princeling and peasant dug together in the 
sand heaps under the kindly care of policemen. 

And ten years later one of the five reasons 
given by the committee for supporting the work 
of conducting sand gardens was this sentence : 

They [children] are taught, in the guise of play, to use 
their hands and brains. 

Kindergarten games, involving ''physical" 
and ''aesthetic" characteristics, and story-telling 
were added about 1893, when kindergartners were 
employed to assist in supervising the children, but 
even then the greater portion of the time and 
attention of the children was given to "manual" 
play. The structure of the sand gardens was 
suited to the concept of their function : the space 
was small, thus limiting the variety of events that 
might occur simultaneously ; the time of operation 
was short, usually one-half day, thus preventing 
the succession of a number of occupations; and 

3'EIlen M. Tower, supra. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 265 

the equipment invited sedentary activities^ such as 
molding, cutting, sewing, since each yard was pro- 
vided with movable benches, toy brooms, buckets 
and shovels, and six pairs of scissors. On two 
days each week, in Boston, sewing and bright 
worsteds were the chief attraction; on two other 
days, brilliantly colored soldiers, animals, and 
other pictures were distributed to be cut out by 
the children. In the remaining four cities studied 
in the analysis of the ' ' sand garden ' ' stage above, 
similar situations prevailed; in Providence whit- 
tling classes were conducted twice a week. At that 
time, the promoters of the movement did not 
have a definite concept of the field of activities. 
Their idea of the function of the playgrounds 
was, as stated above,^^ to keep the children off 
the streets and thus away from certain physical 
and moral dangers by inducting them into safer 
places for play, a social situation in which a con- 
structive use of materials and social forces was 
made for the development of personal and group 
life. 

During the ''model playground" and ''small 
park" stages, "physical" activities were empha- 
sized. These activities comprised the various 
active or motor plays and games; the "tag" 
games, "team" games, "field" sports, and track 
events. The "model playgrounds" furnished 
space and apparatus for older boys and girls as 
well as little children, for the sand garden was 

98Cf. pp. 53-55. 



266 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

located iu "the children's corner"; the '^ small 
parks ' ' for all ages, with ample facilities for field 
sports and track events. The Charlesbank Out- 
door Gymnasium was the prototype of this concept 
of structure and function, and the recreation cen- 
ters of the South Parks, Chicago, the most com- 
plete embodiment. At that time, the conservation 
of health through the promotion of * ' active ' ' rather 
than "passive" play, that is, vigorous games, 
gymnastics, and athletics instead of the sedentary 
occupations of the sand gardens and the commer- 
cialized amusements.^^ The efficiency test and 
"amateur athletics" represent the highest devel- 
opment of this phase of the movement and are 
closely followed by the indoor gymnasium, the 
swimming pool, and the camp. But these facilities 
appealed only to those who were of comparatively 
rugged physique. Continuity of interest depended 
upon one's showing in the contest, the winners 
being regular in attendance while the losers 
tended to drift into the ranks of the spectators, 
and a demand for the development of quiet games 
and other pursuits beyond the limits of the occu- 
pations of the sand gardens was perceived. In 
response, three types of activities were added: 
"aesthetic," "social," and "civic," in the order 
named. 

The "aesthetic" provisions included such as 
the story-hour, story-playing, junior dramatics, 
festivals, and pageantry. These events were 

s^Cf. p. 253 above. 




A KliUAj> SLi'.>i!. 




n^' -■^' 




A SLULKlJA.N \ lEW 



1 


^^^Hj^^H^^^^^BiH^I 


1' '' ^ 


•..■51 


P 


1 


^ 


E^l^l^gP^^ 








iji 


pjp^ 


. m 




. ^ |§ -j,, 1 4^ 


Mfti 




^jii 


Kw ,^i^^''"^La^lE^^^^E 


i^i! 






M<«H ■*" 



A CITY BY THE SEA 
'WORLD BUILDING," HAMILTON PARK PLAYGROUND, CHICAGO 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 267 

usually led by the instructors in the women 's 
gymnasiums and children's playgrounds, although 
in some communities special organizers were 
provided. Especially was this true of the festi- 
vals and pageants, although many playground in- 
structors composed, and directed with credit, 
festival and pageantry programs of a modest 
nature."" 

The period of greatest emphasis upon this 
phase of play was between 1912 and 1915, or dur- 
ing the ''civic art and welfare" stage. The con- 
cept of the function of the play movement at this 
point of its evolution was somewhat reversionary, 
** individual" rather than "group," namely the 

lo^A typical playground pageant was that of Palmer Park, 
Chicago South Parks, given at 2:00 p. m.. Labor Day, 1913. It 
was entitled "A Pageant of Chicago," and comprised the fol- 
lowing ten episodes: 

I — Naming the River. The Indians seek a western hunt- 
ing ground by means of an unknown river. It dwindles into 
two small branches. They name it Chi Cagou (Alas! It is 
nothing). Legendary times. 

II— The White Stranger. Father Marquette, 1673. 

Ill — The First Citizen. Jean, the trader, 1779. 

IV — Buying Chicago. Americans buy Chi-cagou of In- 
dians, 1796. 

V — Fort Dearborn. The massacre of 1812. 

Interlude: Lament of the Spirit of the Lake. 

VI — A Day in Early Chicago. About the time of 1837. 

VII — The Rail Splitter. Chicago's part in the Civil War, 
1860-65. 

VIII — The Great Fire. Flames attack sleeping city in 1871. 

IX — ^The World's Fair. Chicago presents the nations to 
Columbia, 1892. 

X — The New City. The months present the dance of the 
future. Labor and capital meet; and join hands to free the 
city of the future. Soldiers of the past enter and give place 
to soldiers of peace. Eugene Field, Chicago's Children's Poet, 
appears with his dream children. The future citizens give 
the dance of youth. The builders of the past pay tribute 
to the new city. Processional. 



268 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

satisfaction of personal desires through the exer- 
cise of the imagination in the dramatic, dancing, 
and musical arts. 

The next addition to the field of activities, 
chronologically, was ''social" events, that is, 
dances, parties, stunt-nights, table-games. This 
phase attained greatest popularity about 1914 in 
the ''municipal dances" previously described, but 
has continued to occupy a place in the schedules 
of gymnasiums as well as fieldhouse and public 
school "recreation centers." The concept of the 
function of the "social" events was quite the 
opposite of that of the "aesthetic" activities in 
at least one respect, since it provided concourse 
with real persons rather than imaginary ones, but 
it resembled them in seeking to provide a con- 
structive social environment. It utilized the sim- 
ple expressions of gregariousness in an effort to 
counteract the commercialized dance halls out- 
side the play centers and the loafing inside them 
during the periods between gymnasium classes or 
other activities and at all times by some people 
who found no other events sufficiently to their 
liking to cause them to enroll in any organized 
activities. The group not enrolled, in all com- 
munities, greatly outnumbered those registered 
in the more highly organized associations; and 
while the conduct of "social" activities was at 
first but an expedient preliminary to an attempt 
to induce them to participate in either the "physi- 
cal" or "aesthetic" activities, in the end, "so- 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 269 

cial" events were incorporated in the regular 
schedules of the recreation centers because of the 
particular function which they exercised in open- 
ing channels of social intercourse through which 
group life might flow more freely. A fourth 
permanent realm was thereby added to the field 
of activities of the play movement. During the 
"community service" stage, this phase found ex- 
pression in ''block parties," ''street dances," 
"community days," "stunt-nights," "spelling 
bees," and free motion pictures presented out-of- 
doors in public parks. 

A fifth addition to the field of activities of 
the play movement was that of "civic" enter- 
prises, efforts toward the exercise of the rights 
and duties of citizens in ways that were volun- 
tary and pleasurable. For adults, the most highly 
organized activities were the "community coun- 
cils" and the "community forums" developed in 
connection with fieldhouses and public schools dur- 
ing 1915-18, and "community service" since that 
date; while for juveniles, there were the boy 
scouts and campfire girls, "junior republics, cities, 
and councils," and Eed Cross associations. 

An analysis of Table XXIV discloses an in- 
crease both in the variety of activities, when com- 
pared with the initial provisions made for play, 
and in the number of cities reporting these re- 
spective features from year to year. Rearran- 
ging them according to types, 7 and 8 are manual; 
6, 7, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 22 are physical; 4, 5, 6, 



270 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

9, 13, 15, and 18 are aesthetic; 5, 12, and 17 are 
social; while 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, and 14 are civic 
in nature. Thus the statement that the field of 
activities of the play movement has evolved from 
a simple to a complex form is abundantly sup- 
ported, notwithstanding the fact that the reports 
are incomplete both with respect to the number 

TABLE XXIV 
Selected List of Particular Activities and the Number of 
Cities in Whose Provision for Play They Were In- 
corporated During 1911-1916, Inclusive 



Activities 1911 1912 1913 1915 1916 

1. Boy Scouts 55 56 77 98 160 

2. Campfire Girls 21 63 85 134 

3. Debating 15 30 42 56 

4. Dramatics 37 37 61 93 110 

5. Evening Entertain- 

ments 43 53 84 119 131 

6. Folk-dancing 120 132 178 273 229* 

7. Gardening 52 67 79 105 133 

8. Industrial Work . . . 100 112 138 191 180* 

9. Instrumental Music. 27 38 51 69 85 

10. Lectures 27 36 67 89 106 

11. Libraries 49 56 71 106 122 

12. Moving Pictures 35 48 67 

13. Pageants 41 44 52 102 

14. Self-Government 44 52 55 65 55* 

15. Singing 78 84 95 150 151 

16. Skating 55 88 102 

17. Social Dancing 42 65 100 108 

18. Story Telling 148 143 196 259 243* 

19. Summer Camps 26 27 65 62 160 

20. Swimming 75 83 138 188 55* 

21. Tramping 74 115 164 197 

22. Wading 69 75 91 127 

*The report under 1916 for folk-dancing-, industrial work, 
self-government, story telling, and swimming are not to be 
taken, necessarily, as indications of a reduction in the number 
of cities providing them for that year, since the whole table 
is compiled from voluntary reports submitted by the recrea- 
tional authorities of the cities, the number varying from year 
to year. Often a city in which facilities have been in operation 
for some time will fail to submit a report, while one in which 
the work is new seldom does so. While thus the figures for 
each year are incomplete they are indicative of the tendency. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 271 

of activities mentioned and the number of cities 
reporting. 

Table XXV shows the addition of ten new 
types of activity to a significant number of cities 
during the year of 1917. While most of these had 
appeared before and many had long been incor- 
porated in municipal organizations of recreation, 

TABLE XXV 

Activities Added Dueing 1917, With Number of Cities 

Reporting the Same* 

Activities Cities ' 

1. Americanization 30 

2. Canning 87 

3. Domestic Science 67 

■ 4. First Aid 101 

5. Hiking 102 

6. Junior Red Cross 60 

7. Knitting 184 

8. Military Drill 100 

9. Sewing for War Relief 106 

10. War Garden Clubs 119 

*The record of this year is significant for two reasons: (a) 
it conflrms the tendency in question; and (b) it occurred during 
the first year of the participation of the United States in the 
Great War. 

the fact that many cities reported their inaugura- 
tion for the first time that year indicates their 
concept of the field of activities as including more 
than manual events, for physical and civic receive 
great consideration. Thus 2, 3, 7, 9, and 10 are 
manual; 4, 5, 8, and 10 are physical; 1 and 6 
are civic. The absence of the aesthetic and social 
is probably due to the fact that war interests 
dominated developments, and during its early days 
at least, those activities that seemed to be more 
directly related to that undertaking were given 



272 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

preference over other events such as music, dra- 
matics, social pleasures, whose values in war were 
not as readily surmised. 

A classification of the activities promoted at 
the present time by the play movement comprises 
the following five groups : 

Manual activities: bio-geography; book-bind- 
ing; cardboard work; designing; drawing; kite 
tournaments; knot-tieing; kodak clubs; leather- 
work; mumble the peg; nature study, gardening, 
caring for pets, and making herbaria; paper- 
work, cutting and folding; photography; print- 
ing; raffia and reed weaving; sand modeling; 
sloyd; sketching; stenciling; sewing; toy-making; 
world-building. 

Physical activities: athletics, aquatics, badge 
tests, calisthenics, camping, dancing, excursions, 
exhibitions, field-days, games, gymnastics, hikes, 
marching, plays, sports, stunts, tournaments. 

Aesthetic activities: concerts by band, chorus, 
or orchestra; dramatics, both adults' and chil- 
dren's; debating; declamations; essay- wr iting ; 
festivals; literaries; musical societies; modeling; 
newspaper-making; opera and operetta; min- 
strels ; pageants ; public speaking ; recitals ; sings ; 
scenario writing ; story-building, -playing, -telling, 
and -writing. 

Social activities: amateur nights; banquets; 
clubs ; dances ; dinners ; game rooms ; legerdemain ; 
motion pictures; musical stories; mock-funerals, 
-trials, -weddings; open road evenings; block, 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 273 

children's, doll, fiction, fad, hobby, Juvenile, 
lawn, and national costume parties ; parlor games ; 
parlor magic; parlor track and field meets; 
'^phunites"; pet shows; receptions; shadow- 
graphs; socials; spelling bees; stunt-nights; tab- 
leaux; trained animal acts; vaudeville enter- 
tainments; young men's and young women's 
nights. 

Civic activities: Americanization work; bar- 
becues; community councils, -dramas, -forums, 
-gardens, -music, -kitchens, -organization, -service ; 
Christmas trees ; co-operative enterprises, involv- 
ing banks, loan associations, stores; mass meet- 
ings; night schools; lectures; political meetings; 
safety first surveys; thrift town meetings; wel- 
fare exhibits ; vigilance committee meetings. 

A comparison of the field of activities indicated 
by the above classification with that of the "sand 
garden" stage of the movement discloses a transi- 
tion from simplicity to complexity, homogeneity 
to heterogeneity, of concept of function. 

H. From the provision of facilities to the 
definition of standards. The equipment of sites 
for play characterized the concept of the function 
of the movement at the time of its inception. 
Thus the ''sand gardens" during the first two 
years of their history were nothing more than 
selected spaces furnished with equipment suitable 
to the play of little children. These facilities were 
without supervision, except that volunteered by 
kindly neighbors, and offered no scheme of organi- 



274 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

zation designed either to direct the play of the 
children attending the grounds or to correlate 
their activities with the social organization of the 
neighborhoods in which they were located. Later 
playgrounds, also, both of the sand garden and 
other types within and without the city of Boston, 
were similarly provided. When supervision was 
first incorporated, as exemplified by the later 
"sand gardens" and the "model playgrounds," 
the concept of the structure and the function of 
the movement still remained unchanged with re- 
spect to the relation which facilities for play were 
believed to sustain to the social organization of 
the communities in which they were situated. 
Likewise during the "small park" and " recreation 
center" stages, no alteration was made in the 
theory of the adjustments proposed. This theory 
has been stated by Thomas"^ to be one of several 
fallacies that may be pointed out in legislation, 
education, and reform measures in general; 
namely, the belief that persons will develop spon- 
taneously, that is, without external influence, 
"tendencies which enable them to profit in a full 
and uniform way from given conditions, and that 
therefore it is sufficient to create favorable or 
remove unfavorable conditions in order to give 
birth to or suppress given tendencies.*' The 
"sand garden," the "model playground," the 
"small park," and the "recreation center" were 
each constructed and operated on that basis. 

^o^W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant 
in Europe and America, Vol. I, p. 12. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 275 

During those stages of the movement, conse- 
quently, efforts looking toward an adjustment to 
the social situation with respect to play were con- 
fined to the provision of facilities, rather than to 
some scheme that would have included an incor- 
poration of psychological aspects as well, in its 
structure and concept of function. While pre- 
senting children, first, and youths and adults, sub- 
sequently, with the opportunity for play — spaces 
equipped and later supervised, thus constituting 
"favorable conditions" to wholesome play — the 
movement failed to take into account the necessity 
for a correlation of these conditions with the 
organized life of the community, by which 
"standard" uses of these facilities and of leisure 
time in general might be made by all the mem- 
bers of the community. During the "civic art 
and welfare" stage, however, the beginning was 
made of the application of this concept to the 
structure of the movement. Fuller use was made 
in the "neighborhood organization" stage, and a 
more extensive utilization of the principle during 
War Camp Community Service, and subsequently. 
This feature may be described as an attempt to 
"define standards" for the use of leisure time by 
all the members of the community in activities 
performed both within and without the facilities 
provided specially for play. It involves the edu- 
cation of the public in the use of spare-time, 
resulting in the gradual development, through 
the co-operation of the people, of traditions. 



276 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

sentiments, opinions regarding play that shall pro- 
voke behavior harmonizing with the consensus of 
the group concerning community welfare ; in short, 
''social attitudes," or tendencies to act toward 
social values, the social value, in this case, being 
the wholesome use of leisure, or play in the sense 
defined at the outset of this report. Prior to the 
fact of this transition, the movement was virtu- 
ally a "playground movement" rather than a 
"play movement," although there were some 
leaders who held slightly different concepts of its 
function and structure^"- as there were instances 
of its application. But it was "war camp com- 
munity service," during 1918-19, that completed 
the transition from the provision of facilities to 
the "definition of standards" for the use of 
leisure. In this concept of the function of the 
movement, the provision of facilities was still an 
integral part of the plan of adjustment, that is, 
there was no abatement of campaigns for more 
playgrounds, recreation centers, or the like, but 
facilities such as these were considered as aids in 

i°-Consult: L. H. Gulick, "Play and Democracy," paper 
read at first annual meeting of the Playground Association of 
America, 1907, and published in Charities and the Com- 
mons, August 3, 1907; Allan T. Burns, The Relation of the 
Small Parks of Chicago to Juvenile Delinquency, Russell Sage 
Foundation publications; Edward B. DeGroot, in Annual Re- 
port of South Park Commissioners, Chicago, 1910. These ar- 
ticles, however, did not contain points of view identical with 
the concept of the transition as formulated in this investiga- 
tion, as will be seen below, since they held that the estab- 
lishment of standards would follow as a result of the operation 
of well equipped and supervised facilities rather than that the 
definitions of standards should be attempted directly as a con- 
scious objective of the movement. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 277 

the larger work of defining and diffusing certain 
ideas and norms/°^ so to speak, concerning the use 
which anyone may make of his leisure time. 

The transition from the provision of facilities 
to the "definition of standards" involved a num- 
ber of changes in the concept of the function of the 
movement, each one adding an integral part of the 
present structure. The principal steps included 
the following: 

First the attempts to make adjustments to the 
social situation with respect to all ages of people 
as a means of conserving certain types of behavior 
regarded as beneficial to community welfare, in 
the place of continued efforts in behalf of children 
and youths alone. Thus, during the earlier stages 
of the movement, it was assumed that adult be- 
havior would follow the interests awakened in 
childhood, if those interests were transformed 
into social attitudes and habits during the expe- 
rience of the child on the playground. Toward 
adult recreation, a laissez faire attitude was main- 
tained until the "recreation center" stage, while 
all attention was focused upon the problem of 
making some adjustment of the play of children 

lo^Thomas, in the work cited above, criticizes the estab- 
lishment of "norms" at the present time on the ground that 
such an action is an expression of "common sense" and not 
"science." Yet wliile his point is true, as far as ultimate 
method is concerned, the fact of life is here, now, and Its 
problems must be met somehow, as he also points out, and 
hence there have sprung up "rules of behavior, by whicli the 
group tends to maintain and make more general the corre- 
sponding type of action among its members." These rules 
include our customs, beliefs, legal and educational methods, 
and institutions. 



278 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

to the current social situation. A good statement 
of this viewpoint is the following :^°* 

Democracy must provide not only a seat and instruction 
for every child, in school, but also play and good play tradi- 
tions for every child in a playground. Without the develop- 
ment of these social instincts, without the growing of the 
social consciousness — which has its roots in the early activ- 
ities of the playground — we cannot expect adults to possess 
those higher feelings which rest upon the earlier social virtues 
developed during childhood. The sandpile for the small child, 
the playground for the middle-sized child, the athletic field 
for the boy, folk-dancing and social ceremonial life for the 
boy and the girl in the teens, wholesome means of social 
relationships during these periods, are fundamental condi- 
tions without which democracy cannot continue, because upon 
them rests the development of that self-control which is 
related to an appreciation of the needs of the rest of the 
group and of the corporate conscience, which is rendered 
necessary by the complex interdependence of modern life. 

Here was an expression of the relation of 
personal behavior to group influence as far as 
juveniles are concerned, but the range of vision 
did not include the dependence of adult sentiment 
and opinion upon the ''social organization" of the 
group or community. The adult, as truly as the 
child, belongs to the group functionally and spa- 
tially, that is, shares in its ' ' consensus ' ' as well as 
resides within its territory. And for the normal 
action of play, in any community, it is necessary, 
therefore, that there be both adequate facilities 
and functional organization for both maturity and 

i^'-'Luther H. Gulick, "Play in Democracy," Charities and 
the Commons, August, 1903. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 279 

immaturity to participate in wholesome uses of 
leisure time/"^ But for some time the play move- 
ment seems to have failed to observe that both 
facilities and organization for adult play did not 
exist, nor was the behavior of adults all that it 
should have been during night leisure and holiday 
vacations. It may be more than a mere coinci- 
dence, therefore, that contemporaneously with the 
stages of the play movement prior to that of 
''civic art and welfare," commercialized amuse- 
ments developed and multiplied exceedingly, as 
sports and other wholesome recreations by adults 
declined. The concept of the situation that 
became distressing to the leaders of the move- 
ment during its recent stages was based at first, 
however, upon the desire to make the provisions 
for children more effective, rather than a consid- 
eration of the pleasure of adults, since it was 
observed that anti-social behavior by adults 
during th-eir leisure inhibited to some extent the 
control of juveniles By the community. Thus pro- 
vision for maturity, which came, first, with the 
provision of benches for mothers and fathers to 
sit on while watching their children play in the 
''model playgrounds," second, with the develop- 
ment of "small parks" in which adults were not 
forbidden, but not encouraged, to participate in 
games, skating, etc., and, third, in the construction 
of ' '.recreation centers ' ' for all ages and operated 
throughout the year, was made imperceptibly with 

loscf. E. S. Bogardus, Introduction to Sociology, pp. 130-34. 



280 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

that for youths and children. Not until the pres- 
ence of adults had become general at the facilities 
provided originally for younger persons, did con- 
scious efforts in their behalf become a part of the 
history of the movement. Since the development 
from provision for children to that for all ages 
of people was a transition in itself and has been 
analyzed above, the object of this reference to it 
is merely to indicate its influence upon the tran- 
sition now under consideration, its causal relation 
to the attempt to ''define standards" for the use 
of leisure by all the members of the community. 
The two transitions were thus involved, the pres- 
ent one being somewhat of a sequel to that which 
widened the age-group with which the movement 
was concerned. 

A second step in the development of the tran- 
sition from provision of facilities to the ' ' definition 
of standards" was that of municipal and state 
legislation concerning both the control of existing 
recreational institutions and activities and the con- 
struction of public and community facilities. The 
facts relative to this phase of the movement were 
fully analyzed above under the discussion of the 
"civic art and welfare" stage. Thus, in many 
communities, where there was no interest on the 
part of the majority of the people in providing 
facilities for play, the enactment of state legisla- 
tion of a mandatory character opened the way for 
the formation of a new concept by presenting a 
problem to the community. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 281 

A third step in the transition was the revival 
of festivals. The first conspicuous example was 
that held in connection with the first annual meet- 
ing of the Playground Association of America, 
in Chicago, June, 1907. In this open-air perform- 
ance, hundreds of children, youths and adults 
participated, groups from nearly all of the play- 
grounds and small park recreation centers en- 
tered. Many of the folk-dances were performed 
by immigrants dressed in the national costume 
appropriate to the dance. Subsequently an open- 
air festival, consisting of folk-dancing and gym- 
nastic events, became an annual event in the 
history of the movement in Chicago, and in other 
cities and rural districts. At the third meeting of 
the association, a committee on festivals reported 

with gratification increasing signs of the growth of the fes- 
tival spirit in America in dance festivals, play festivals, and 
national festivals; in pageant and drama; in procession and 
commemorative ceremonial. 

The committee is impressed, however, by the need of 
some expert guidance and help in the arrangement and con- 
duct of some of these festivals. Some of them lack expres- 
siveness because there is no central and co-ordinating idea. 
Some are ill adapted to actual conditions 

The aim of these festivals should be to involve the 
people in self-amusement and self-expression. The festival 
should be the greatest and most characteristic form of demo- 
cratic art. It should interpret the ideals of the people to 
themselves. It should stimulate the creative energies of the 
people, and bring forth the latent imagination and poetry 
which is in them.^**^ 

losproceedings of the Playground Association of America, 
Vol. Ill, p. 442. 



282 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

During the following decade considerable prog- 
ress was made in the standardization of festivals 
by the incorporation of dramatic and musical 
activities as well as dancing, games, and athletics 
in the plan of organization, and by a unifica- 
tion of the program through the use of a ' ' theme ' ' 
or story and a loose plot in the place of the 
former sequence of miscellaneous numbers that 
characterized the earlier programs. The themes 
chosen were ''group" rather than ''personal," 
and the plot, interrupted action on many inci- 
dents rather than connected action in a single 
situation, the distinction thus between a pageant 
and a play. The action is, furthermore, both 
symbolical and realistic. When the latter is fol- 
lowed, the folk-customs — dances, songs, merry- 
making — are re-enacted; while in the use of the 
former either traditional legends or original 
masques are presented. In every program of 
this type the common gymnastic activities, such 
as running, wrestling, "stunts," and "feats of 
strength or skill," are incorporated. A typical 
program of a festival of this type is the one 
below, which was given at Fuller Park, Chicago, 
in May, 1914; the prelude is symbolical, while 
the remainder is realistic." 

Prelude: The elves and fairies dance to celebrate the 
coming of Maytime, 

I. King Richard surprises Robin Hood in Sherwood 
Forest. They become reconciled and together at- 
tend the May Festivities at Nottingham. 
n. The Queen and her ladies join them. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 283 

III. The children play upon the green. ' ' Garden Dance, ' ' 

''Little Mother," ''The Little Girl's Dance," 
"Here We Come Over the Green Grass," "Roman 
Soldiers. ' ' 

IV. Robin Hood 's Men compete in archery contests. 
V. The Queen's Ladies dance. 

VI. The boys race and tumble on the green. 

VII. With song and dance the May Pole is brought in. 

"Today's the First of May," "How Do You Do!" 

VIII. The May Queen is selected and the May Pole wound. 

IX. King Richard then calls for his Jesters. 

X. The Morris Men dance: "The Blue-Eyed Stranger," 

"Figure of Eight," "Country Gardens." 
XI. They are joined by the Villagers and the Queen's 
Ladies: "The English Tempest," "Brighton 
Tempest." 
XII. The young men wrestle and perform feats of strength. 

XIII. Rewards are given the victors by the King. 

XIV. The King and Queen leave escorted by the throng. 

The prelude of this festival program was de- 
signed for little children; nnmbers III and VII 
for pre-adolescent boys and girls ; IV and VI for 
boys in early adolescence; XII and XIII, boys 
in middle or later adolescence; VIII, adolescent 
girls; I, IX and X, adult men; II and V, adult 
women, and XI and XIV, all ages of participants. 
While programs of this character are often pre- 
sented entirely by children and adolescents, and 
frequently by girls alone, they are given at other 
times by neighborhood groups including all ages 
of people as in this case. 

Thus the ''play festival," as these events were 
popularly known, contributed directly to the ' ' defi- 
nition of standards" for the use of leisure time. 



284 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

It was probably the most widely used instrument 
and the most potent influence, with the possible 
exception of "community service," in bringing 
the play movement to its present concept of func- 
tion, as far as the definition of standards is 
involved. 

The fourth step, the awarding of victory in 
team game contests to the side making the highest 
record in sportsmanship, is another phase of the 
transition from facilities toward the ' ' definition of 
standards." The earlier method of determining 
the winner in an athletic contest was by the num- 
ber of ''goals," or ''strikes," or "points" made, 
the score, while the only effort to suppress "foul 
play" was by certain penalizations as defined 
in the rules of the game. Under that policy of 
supervising athletic competition, groups were fre- 
quently quite willing to permit a weaker player 
to commit "personal fouls" against a stronger 
member of the opposing team; for should the 
offender be excluded from the game, as was 
rarely done in fact, nevertheless he was regarded 
as having been "heroically sacrificed" in the 
"melee" which disabled the "star" on the oppo- 
site team, and thus his team was in a position to 
make the higher score by virtue of the physical 
handicap under which the better players of the 
opposing side were working, while the moral value 
of competitive sport was thereby nullified. The 
first recreation system to devise a scheme to pre- 
vent such unsportsmanlike behavior, common in 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 285 

spirited contests such as ''championship" games, 
was the South Park Commissioners, Chicago, in 
1914 ; since then a number of playground systems 
have followed it. This plan as it was originally 
formulated involved the rating of all teams on a 
percentage basis : 35 per cent for sportsmanship ; 
25 per cent for reliability, and 40 per cent for 
winning the highest score, the number of points 
or goals."^ Thus it is possible for a team making 
the lower score to win the contest by securing a 
higher rating in sportsmanship and reliability. 
Sportsmanship as here used signifies the omission 
of personal fouls, unnecessary roughness, im- 
proper language, and the prompt and courteous 
acceptance of official decisions. Reliability des- 
ignates the prompt appearance at the game, cor- 
rectness in weight and batting order, where used. 
A fifth event involved in the transition was 
that of the supervision of street play. Whereas the 
play movement attempted, in its earlier stages, 
to ''keep the children off the street," now it seeks 
to organize and direct the play of children and 
adults upon certain streets in sections of cities 
in which the population is congested and other 
facilities for outdoor activities are lacking. This 
was an attempt to define the standards of "free 
play" by providing "copies," or "suggestions," 
for groups to imitate in their play outside of 
playgrounds and recreation centers. A play 
leader was thus sent into certain streets at 

lo^Cf. Appendices I and J for a statement of the plan as it 
was later developed by the South Parks. 



286 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

regular periods to direct the children or mature 
members of the block or neighborhood in their 
use of the street as a playground. Special games 
and other activities were selected or developed 
with the nature of the space in mind. The use 
of streets for purposes such as this was termed 
** zoning" them, and that portion of a street, be- 
tween two other intersecting streets so used, was 
known as a "play zone." It could not be used 
for other purposes, except by the fire or police 
departments, during the time in which it was 
designated as a "play zone." The play move- 
ment resorted to this method of directing play 
as a result of a consciousness that all play did 
not, could not, and should not take place on 
a playground or in a recreation center, because 
facilities such as these were, first, too few, and, 
second, too limited in resources. 

A sixth factor in the transition, namely, the 
provision of camps outside of the city limits but 
under municipal control and support, came from 
a consciousness of the inadaptation of the play- 
ground and recreation center to the changing con- 
cept of the function of the movement. While in 
most instances these camps were open during the 
summer only, in others, as in Los Angeles, the 
camps have been open during the year, but used 
only week ends, Saturday and Sunday, during 
the school year. 

A seventh step in the transition is seen in the 
employment of play leaders throughout the year 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 287 

in some cities in which all-year facilities had not 
yet been opened. The object of this action was 
to arouse interest in the wholesome use of leisure 
time, by the organization of pursuits off the play- 
ground, the development of co-operation between 
philanthropic and public agencies supervising 
play, and the formation of a public opinion con- 
cerning play. In these communities ' ' standards ' ' 
as well as ' 'facilities" were thus emphasized from 
the first. A variation of this last method was made 
by the appointment first of ''recreation secre- 
taries" and later of "community secretaries," 
whose function was the conduct of educa- 
tional propaganda relative to community organ- 
ization of leisure. These offices differed in 
function from that of "superintendent of recre- 
ation" or "playgrounds" in that the responsi- 
bility of the latter was the administration of a 
given system of playgrounds and recreation cen- 
ters maintained either by a playground com- 
mission or department of municipal government 
or by a park or school board. 

An eighth feature of the transition from facil- 
ities to "standards" was that of "community 
organization, ' ' first undertaken in connection with 
recreation centers in Chicago and New York 
during 1914-15, and fully described and analyzed 
above in the discussion of the "neighborhood 
organization" stage of the movement. The dis- 
tinctive features of this scheme of recreation were 
the "community council," the "public forum," 



288 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the "civic pageant," and the "play festival." 
These activities have been either developed or 
multiplied by community organization. 

But while the play movement did accumulate 
considerable information and did also perfect a 
technique for "defining standards" for the use 
of leisure time prior to 1917, it was during the 
Great War that this concept of function was dif- 
fused. ' ' Community service, ' ' first in war camps 
and industrial centers, and in cities generally, 
since the signing of the armistice is the instru- 
ment now being employed to emphasize this point 
of view."^ During the past three years, more 
than ever before, the play movement has been 
endeavoring to "define standards" rather than 
simply "provide facilities" for play. 

I. From "individiiaV interests to ''group" 
and "community" activities. Further analysis 
of the play movement discloses a transition from 
provision for the fulfilment of " individual "^°® 
wishes and desires to that for the development 
first of "group" and later of "community" ac- 
tivities. The "individual" interests involved in 
the adjustments made during the earlier stages 
of the movement may be described as having con- 
sisted of opportunities to fulfil the wish for "new 
experience ' ' and for ' ' recognition, ' ' both of which 
were provided in some measure by the "sand 

lo^Abbie Condit, "Recreation," American Yearbook, 1920. 

lo^Cf. A. W. Small, "Sociology," article in Encijclovedla 
Americana, edition of 1919, for discussion of the term "indi- 
vidual." 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 289 

garden," the ''model playground," the ''small 
park," the "recreation center," and the "civic 
art and welfare" stages. In these respective 
facilities many "new experiences" were available 
to the "individual," such as molding in sand, 
listening to stories at the "story-hour," wading 
or swimming in the pool, running a "dash" or a 
"mile race," doing the many "stunts" performed 
upon the apparatus which involved considerable 
courage as well as skill, "hiking," and numerous 
other activities."" Likewise many opportunities 
to gain "recognition" also were presented to the 
"individual," if he "won the race," or could do 
the most daring "stunt" on the apparatus, or 
jump the farthest or highest, or "pitch" the best 
game of ball. There were opportunities to some 
extent for "response," as in the formation of 
•friendships and the association of members of 
the same "team" in the inter-playground con- 
tests, but conscious effort was not made to fulfil 
this wish directly during the earlier stages of the 
movement. Everything organized or suggested 
was primarily to give "new experience" or 
"recognition" to the "individual" conceived as 
a more or less particular, separate, and discrete 
being. A "common sense" and "naive" assump- 
tion that play was a "natural" expression and 

iioCf. R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, "Old World Traits 
Transplanted,'" and W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, "The 
Polish Peasant in Europe and America" for discussion of 
"the four wishes," namely, (1) new experience, (2) security, 
(3) recognition, (4) response. 



290 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

should be utilized in the education of the "indi- 
vidual" prevailed, and colored the entire scheme 
of provision proposed by the movement, during 
its first five stages. It amounted to saying that 
the child would become a good citizen, that is, a 
valuable member of society in mature life, if given 
an opportunity during childhood and youth to 
exercise his natural responses, without a correl- 
ative development of some kind of a "life organi- 
zation," as Thomas calls it, whereby he might 
develop a personality that would be a phase of 
social reality rather than an independent entity/" 
As a practical measure for the control of "in- 
dividuals," and thus, the expedition of the effi- 
cacy of the playground or recreation center, and 
apparently without any scientific understanding 
of the full significance of the action, the indi- 
vidualistic concept of structure and function came 
to be supplanted by an emphasis upon the social 
aspect, the group relation of play. The object 
here was to harmonize personal ideals mth social 
welfare, and thus bring to pass an automatic 
regulation of the behavior of the persons engaged 
in playground or recreation center activities. Thus 
certain activities were organized for the promo- 
tion of group rather than personal ends, except 
as the two ends were conceived as one, as coinci- 
dent with each other. The "individual" did not 
participate in the game merely that he might 
experience the feeling of winning, but rather that 

i"Cf. E. S. Bogardus, Social Psychology, pp. 1-4, 81-90. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 291 

he miglit also share with the other members of 
the team a consciousness of group superiority, 
which applied not only to his teammates but to 
his playground or school or neighborhood as well, 
for all members of these groups aided, by cheer- 
ing or personal encouragement of some other 
kind, the effort toward victory."^ 

The concept "group" here designates a small 
or large number of persons related to each other 
by accommodation and co-operation and involved 
frequently in competition with similar bodies of 
persons. The words ''social" and ''community" 
are marginal concepts ; the former being general, 
the latter, territorial. The word "crowd" is a 
marginal term. In the play movement it describes 
a class in school, the daily attendance on the play- 
ground, or a similar aggregate of persons, includ- 
ing both spectators and actors, as in a holiday 
celebration. The group is a "primary" associa- 
tion, as defined by Cooley,^^^ ' ' a face to face meet- 
ing"; but on the playground the group relation is 
less rigid and dominant, that is, one does not 
attain status merely "as a member of the 
group, ' '"* as is true of the immigrant groups and 
primitive societies, but one 's status is elevated by 
the transitory success of the group, the team or 
class or school. The "play group" does not 
"maintain the security of the whole community 

112A "song" which the present writer has often heard at 
competitive games contains the following phrase, "You do your 
best, boys; we'll do the rest, boys; fight on to victory." 

113C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, p. 23. 

ii^Bark and Miller, op. cit., p. 39. 



292 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

at the sacrilice of the wishes of its individual 
■members,'"" as is the case with primary groups 
in the earlier stages of social evolution, except 
for transitory periods and in limited ways. Yet 
in so far as the members of the team accommo- 
date themselves to the demands of the captain or 
coach that they play in certain positions, that they 
make '' sacrifice hits" as in baseball, that they 
play the role of fool or villain in the drama, and 
in like instances, there is a transitory period dur- 
ing which the individual feels himself a person 
''to the degree that he is incorporated in an 
organization."^^'' 

The "community" is spatial as well as func- 
tional. It is removed but a step at most from the 
"group," and often involved in it; the "group" 
in many instances being a "community," that is, 
including all persons within a given area in a 
functional relationship. In the play movement 
the full development and utilization of the "com- 
munity" concept came subsequently to that of 
the "group." It did not supplant the group rela- 
tion but extended it, modified its application so as 
to involve a more democratic, heterogeneous, 
"free" relation between the members. That is, 
the "community" grants greater "liberty" to its 
members, more variety in life organization, and 
consequently, a higher degree of personality, as 
the term applies to the "neighborhood organi- 
zation" and "community service" stages of the 

"spark and Miller, op. cit., p. 38. ^^^Ibid. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 293 

play movement. The ' ' community, ' ' here, then is 
less dominant and binding than in primitive socie- 
ties and the elementary stages of civilized social 
organization. This fact is due, doubtless, to the 
presence of the "state," the "nation," the "city," 
and the "public," air of which are marginal terms 
with respect to the "community," and all tend to 
weaken the power of the "community" over the 
"individual" in his quest for the fulfilment of 
"the four wishes." The "community" activities 
are less spontaneous than those of the "crowd" 
or the "group" in the history of the play move- 
ment. The development of its function has 
involved a great amount of rationalizing, of con- 
scious effort, as a result of the disorganizing in- 
fluences present in the modern social situation, 
especially in the cities where "secondary organi- 
zation" frequently prevails. 

Quite unconsciously, therefore, play has been 
treated by the promoters of the movement as a 
mode of collective behavior. Evidence of this 
fact is furnished by an analysis of the organiza- 
tion of activities for the development of "group" 
and "community" attitudes. Relative to this 
feature there are six devices that have been em- 
ployed: (1) the "group test" in athletic compe- 
tition; (2) the awarding of "trophies" to teams 
rather than to persons; (3) the method of de- 
termining "athletic supremacy" for a given 
playground or school; (4) the development of self- 
supporting and self-governing clubs; (5) the 



294 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

control of dancing by "group" or "neighbor- 
hood" associations in place of attempts to "in- 
spect" or "supervise" commercial halls and 
"public" dances; (6) the organization of com- 
munities for the aid that they thus may render 
the administration of play facilities. 

1. The "group test" is a form of competition, 
either on apparatus or in other exercises, in which 
the average attainment of one group such as a 
class in school, or a transitory classification made 
for the purposes of the contest, is compared with 
that of another group to determine the victor. 
Here each contestant competes against a "stand- 
ard" and a record of the results of each attempt 
is kept until each member of a given group has 
taken part in like manner, then the average for 
the group is figured out and compared with a 
similar average of another or any number of 
groups. Thus class may compete against class, 
or a school or playground against another insti- 
tution. This plan of competitive athletics per- 
mits every member to participate and to count 
equally in determining the final result. It differs 
greatly from the older form of athletics wherein 
each winner gains at the expense of some other or 
possibly several opponents. If ten boys compete 
in a foot race, only one may be declared the win- 
ner, while in the "group test" the effort of each 
is satisfactorily rewarded. Taking the same ten 
boys again, if the same one continues to win in 
each race, the other members will eventually de- 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 295 

cline to compete with him, or if second, and third 
places are given, as is generally done in this type 
of athletics, then seven of the ten will soon lose 
interest in the race. The ''group test" was de- 
signed to induce universal participation for the 
hygienic and moral benefits that were believed to 
accrue from it, in the place of the tendency toward 
professionalization which inevitably results from 
the traditional method of inviting an indiscrim- 
inate number to enter the contest and then an- 
nouncing only the winner of first, second, and 
third places in each event. 

2. The awarding of trophies to teams rather 
than to persons is another plan for emphasizing 
the "group" versus the ''individual." Here 
"some inexpensive evidence of having won a place, 
either first, second, or third, in a competitive 
event, such as a ribbon of appropriate color, blue 
for first, red for second, and white for third, is 
given each successful contestant, while the greater 
prize, usually a "loving cup," is awarded the 
team, or rather the playground, park, or school 
which the winning team represents. The name 
of the institution to which the team winning the 
contest belongs and the names of the members of 
the winning team are usually inscribed upon the 
cup or other prize that is awarded in this manner. 
Loyalty to the group and to the community alike 
is developed in all who can compete in athletics, 
declamation, or debate, or in any other form of 
competition in which this method of award is 



296 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

followed. A social attitude is fostered, a social 
consciousness engendered, by this form of sport. 

3. Another plan for emphasizing the * * group ' * 
versus the ''individual" in competition is that 
known as ''athletic supremacy" for the month 
and year, by which a count is made of all con- 
testants entered from each play center in an inter- 
center contest and one point allowed each team 
for each event in which a contestant from that 
team participates whether he "places" or not, 
except that the number of points that any team 
may win in this manner is definitely limited before- 
time on the basis of the probable average number 
entering from each center. This is placing num- 
bers against skill; the mass against the "star" 
performer. 

4. A fourth method of recognition of the 
"group" is the development of self-supporting 
clubs, especially among people between seventeen 
and twenty-five years of age. These organiza- 
tions were of three types : for young men only, for 
young women only, and for both sexes. Their 
objects were either primarily for study or for 
sociability, but in either case a certain amount of 
*' social" activity, in the sense defined above un- 
der transition G, always developed. One of the 
most frequent forms of this type of occupation 
was dancing. 

5. The control of dancing, however, consti- 
tutes a fifth method by which "group" interests 
assumed ascendency over "individual" activities. 








^iS^ 


i"^[;<HP^ 


.-^^-:^S:J:-- ' V 


^^'^ 




'CINDERELLA." STORY-PLAYING, USING THE DRAMATIC. PANTOMIME, 
DANCING, CHORAL AND PAGEANTRY ARTS, 135 CHILDREN 
IN CAST, HAMILTON PARK. CHICAGO. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 297 

The principal sources of anti-social behavior in 
conjunction with commercialized dance halls have 
undoubtedly been due, as play leaders have come 
to believe, not to the lack of chaperonage nor of 
wholesome personal beliefs of many attending 
them, but to promiscuity of admissions and alco- 
holic liquors sold or distributed at the dance. 
The '^municipal dances" described above in the 
discussion of the "civic art and welfare" stage, 
and similar activities conducted under the 
auspices of War Camp Community Service, cor- 
rected the latter of these two sources of' miscon- 
duct, but failed to obviate the former. And it is 
where promiscuity is permitted, especially in our 
cities, that the normal restraining influence of 
the "group" breaks down; any one, especially if 
immature, behaves differently while among 
strangers from what he does while among neigh- 
bors or friends. Also there is no way of super- 
vising a crowd in a dance hall if evil persons are 
admitted along with others seeking innocent 
amusement, as pointed out by Halbert after con- 
siderable experience in supervising and inspect- 
ing dance halls in Kansas City."^ In some 
communities, therefore, dancing in public play cen- 
ters has been restricted to neighborhood associa- 
tions or smaller groups who reserve the hall and 
invite guests, each of whom is known and vouched 
for by some member of the club or crowd conduct- 
ing the dance. The best example of this method 

ii^Cf. discussion above of the "Civic Art and Welfare" 
stage. 



298 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

of conducting dancing is probably that offered by 
the South Park Commissioners, Chicago, who in 
their sixteen years of experience have never per- 
mitted a promiscuous crowd at a fieldhouse dance, 
although the number of dancing parties averages 
fifty per week during the winter. In every in- 
stance, the assembly hall or other room of the 
fieldhouse is ''reserved" by a club, or a person 
representing a definite although unorganized 
group, no admissions are charged at the door or 
elsewhere, and no one is admitted except with the 
approval of the person or club reserving the room 
in which the dance is being held. All groups are 
required to provide their own chaperones, door- 
men, and wardrobe attendants, although the di- 
rector of the fieldhouse is always present in the 
building and a patrolman, regularly detailed to 
the park, is within call to aid, if necessary, the 
group reserving the hall in carrying out its agree-- 
ment to exclude ''loafers," "hangers-on," and 
the like from admission to the dance. The police 
never enter the hall for the purpose of chaperon- 
ing the dance. Here is a clear example of an 
attempt to exercise social control by the instru- 
mentality of self-governing groups. 

6. An elaboration of the "group" concept of 
the structure and function of the play movement 
led to that of "community" organization and 
service and completed the transition from "indi- 
vidualistic" interests. This phase of the transi- 
tion came last as a natural consequence of the 



TEANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 299 

fact that the earlier stages of the movement were 
concerned with adjustments that involved juven- 
iles rather than adults. When the concept of the 
structure and function of the movement involved 
provisions for persons of all ages in all whole- 
some uses of leisure time, as it did during and 
since the ''recreation center" stage, a far more 
complicated situation faced its administrators. 
The problem, then, was how to develop self-con- 
trol and self-support of leisure pursuits in har- 
mony with the public welfare, in order that 
provision for play in all communities might be 
adequate to the demands of the changed social 
situation of modern times. ''Community organi- 
zation " as a form of ' ' community service ' ' repre- 
sents the solution of this problem proposed by 
the movement. The history of this solution was 
presented, above, in the analysis of the last two 
stages of the movement. It is unnecessary to re- 
state here the facts involved in its development. 
A further analysis of the concept of "community 
organization" as a method of administering play 
is necessary, however, to establish the fact of a 
transition from "individual" to "community" 
activities. Three aspects of that theory may be 
brie% mentioned in this connection : 

First, it came to be the consensus of the pro- 
moters of the play movement, that a community 
may and therefore should do for Itself many 
things that external forces alone are unable to 
do for it. It was pointed out that in the cities in 



300 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

particular, there were many neighborhoods or 
"little communities" in which large sums of 
money were spent annually by various social wel- 
fare agencies, that continued to yield the usual 
harvest of poverty, crime, misery, because the 
population of these districts did not co-operate 
collectively rather than individually with the 
agencies at work in their vicinity. Philanthropic 
and governmental agencies, it was said, were 
working on the analogy of machine industry,"^ 
on the assumption that we human beings, that the material 
we are dealing with through our ministrations, is passive 
material, like iron ore or cotton thread, which can be taken 
and put in a machine and hammered or woven and put 
through specialized processes and turned out at the end a 
finished product. 

But people, it was pointed out, are not things ; 
character is not a product, the result of an ex- 
ternal application to their nature while they re- 
main passive in the process, but an achievement 
and a collective achievement which was previously 
described by A. W. Small,^^® who defines a person 
as "a center of conscious impulses which realize 
themselves in full only in realizing a society." 
Persons then are phases of social reality; they 
live in groups and, as shown by Cooley,^^*' in these 
group relations, ' ' everywhere, human nature comes 
into existence. Man does not have it at birth ; he 

ii^John Collier, "Community Organization and the Great 
Decision," reprinted from the Seicard Park Community Center 
Magazine. New York, 1919. 

ii^A. W. Small, General Sociology, p. 476. 

120C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, p. 23. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 301 

cannot acquire it except through fellowship; and 
it decays in isolation. ' ' 

Both play groups and neighborhood groups 
are primary, that is, universal and fundamental, 
and in primitive societies concentric, the latter 
being marginal to the former. But in our present 
stage of social organization this face-to-face 
gToup is frequently disorganized, and play among 
many other types of behavior is treated 'indi- 
vidually" and by a machine-like process, in which 
even families are divided in their recreation. 
Most of the types of commercialized recreations 
are of this character. The social situation is 
lacking, in such instances, in the factor essential 
to achievement. Play cannot be purchased, 
neither can it be given away. It can only be 
created, and it attains its most intense and highly 
developed form in co-operative, collective, life of 
the group. A group, a neighborhood, therefore, 
can do for itself, with respect to play as in cer- 
tain other activities, what other forces cannot do 
for it. It must create its own play if its leisure 
is to yield all it may. ' ' Community organization ' * 
was conceived as a device for mobilizing the re- 
sources of neighborhoods in adjustment to the 
changed social situation, in which face-to-face 
meetings had largely disintegrated, so as to make 
possible self-selection, support, and government of 
leisure pursuits in harmony with public welfare. 

A second aspect of the theory that underlay 
"community organization" was the belief on the 



302 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

part of play leaders that comnmnities may be 
over-organized/^^ that is, may contain territori- 
ally more societies than they can support or util- 
ize. Whatever may be the truth of that belief, 
it is history that the idea was held by many and 
that it served as a spur to the work of attempting 
not to add another organization but to correlate 
those already existing into a more or less unified 
whole. The ''community council" was said to be 
an organization of the community, not an organi- 
zation in the community. It was believed not 
to add another organization but more organiza- 
tion. It was designed to be comprehensive and 
to correlate all useful agencies, strengthening the 
weaker but essential ones, preventing duplicating 
ones from forming, and exposing those that ex- 
ploit to the fresh air of public opinion. It sought 
to ''put first things first, and second things sec- 
ond, ' '^^^ by its allegiance to the good of the whole 
community. It would be presumptuous, of course, 
for an "organized community" to set up a claim 
to such a Utopian function as the advocates of the 
"community movement" described "community 
organization" to be, but in many communities the 
movement doubtless did tend to give greater cohe- 
sion and unity to neighborhood life, to restore 
in part the instrument of social contact previous 
generations had found useful, the "face to face 
meeting" of the community. 

i2iHenry E. Jackson, A Community Center, The Macmlllan 
Co., 1918. 



TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 303 

The third element in the philosophy of the 
^'community organization" movement, one di- 
rectly related to the support and control of whole- 
some leisure pursuits, was the concept of the 
relation of the neighborhood to the perpetuity and 
efficiency of self-government, especially in munici- 
pal administration and national policies. The 
organized neighborhood was described as ' ' a little 
democracy, "^^^ and was said to be generically 
and dynamically related to the larger democracy 
of city, state, and nation. Past failures by the 
latter were attributed to the absence of the 
former. ' ' Community organization ' ' was roughly 
defined as a medium through which responsibility 
for efficient government in all of its phases could 
be made real and personal to the members of the 
community.^^* The leisure period, it was pointed 
out, was a fertile field for either commercial ex- 
ploitation and anti-social behavior leading to 
political and cultural disintegration, or for be- 
havior of quite the opposite kind. The determin- 
ing factor, it was held, was the character of the 
''social organization" of the group. It should 
involve, it was said, the ''little democracy," the 
"face to face" association small enough to permit 
personal acquaintance and full communication, but 
large enough to enable every member to visualize 

i23Mrs. Ida Clyde Clark, The Little Democracy, D. Apple- 
ton & Co., New York, 1918. This volume was prepared as a 
textbook on Community Organization. 

i24joiin Collier, "Community Councils, What They Have 
Done and What Is Their Function," National Conference of 
Social Work, 1919. 



304 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the whole of society/^^ "Community organiza- 
tion" seemed to many to meet these specific re- 
quirements. It was a leisure-time activity. Its 
action would make possible collective play, again, 
as in the more elementary stages of social evo- 
lution, with this difference, however, that in mod- 
ern times greater variation and freedom of 
personality would prevail owing to the influence 
of the state and nation upon local organization. 
Thus, in the sequence of stages and transitions 
in the play movement, ' ' community organization ' ' 
as a form of "community service" was conceived 
as a process for the conservation of leisure and 
the development of play as a mode of collective 
behavior. "Community organization" may be 
regarded as a scheme of "community service" 
and the scheme of community recreation today. 
Wherever it is utilized a play center becomes a 
community center, and play contributes directly 
to community interests instead of merely satis- 
fying "individual" wishes as characterized the 
adjustment established during the earlier stages 
of the play movement. 

'^-''R. A. Woods, "The Neighborhood in Social Reconstruc- 
tion," Avierican Sociological Society Papers and Proceedings, 
1913, pp. 14-28. 



V. THE TREND OF THE STAGES AND THE 
TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

An analysis of a movement is incomplete if its 
tendencies are not disclosed. As stated in the 
introduction to this report, movements are transi- 
tory, becoming in time either transformed into 
institutions or disintegrated. In the former case, 
their plans of adjustment to the changed social 
situation are adopted by society and made a part 
'of its ''more or less connected and harmonious 
'system of rules of behavior. ' '^ In the latter case, 
their schemes are discarded with the passing away 
of the particular feature in the social situation, 
or the illusion concerning the same, which incited 
them. This phase of a movement may be denom- 
inated its "trend." It is manifested by the sum 
of its "stages" and "transitions." It indicates 
the probable success or failure. It is a test of 
the efficacy and a criterion of the' achievement, at 
a given time, since it marks the degree of attain- 
ment of the object for which the movement was 
inaugurated. A definition of the "trend" of a 
movement involves the formulation of a concept 
of the process as a whole, unifying the facts of 
its history, and establishing a basis upon which to 
evaluate it. 

A statement of the "trend" of the play move- 
ment in the United States may be deduced from 

iW. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in 
Europe and America, VoL I, pp. 31-33. 

306 



306 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

the foregoing analysis of its respective ''stages" 
and ' ' transitions ' ' ; and, consequently, the defense 
of the following formulation rests in part upon 
the accuracy of the classifications and explana- 
tions of the data examined in chapters iii and 
iv above. If these inductions were correct, then 
the "trend" of the play movement is toward an 
integration, rather than a dissolution, of an ade- 
quate scheme of adjustment to the social situa- 
tion which it has perfected from time to time as 
changes in the concept of its function and struc- 
ture have been made, and incidentally, toward 
institutionalization. 

Any discussion of the ''trend" of a movement 
must, as a matter of course, consider its relation 
to the possibility of its institutionalization; for 
every movement tends either toward the proba- 
bility or improbability of such a termination of 
its activities, whatever else may be true of its 
"trend." With respect to the play movement, 
however, two groups of tendencies seem to char- 
acterize its "trend": the one, toward an evo- 
lution in the concept of its function correlative 
with changes in its structure which has been re- 
peatedly indicated in the discussion of the 
"stages" and "transitions" above and will be 
clearly disclosed in the paragraphs that follow; 
and the other, toward the institutionalization 
of many phases of its changing and growing 
scheme of adjustments to the modern social 
situation. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 307 

These two aspects of the ''trend" of the play 
movement may, for the sake of convenience and 
economy of effort, be considered somewhat to- 
gether in the following analysis, since they 
involve the same groups of facts with emphasis 
now on their significance for institutionalization 
and now for the evolution in structure and con- 
cept of function, as parts of a unified whole. 
Before undertaking an analysis of the ''trend" 
of this movement, however, the characteristics 
and genesis of institutions in general should be 
explained for the sake of a mutual understanding 
between the writer and the reader — since the term 
institution is carelessly used by some writers — 
and particular attention given to the process of 
transformation of a movement into an institution 
as was asserted in the introduction above to be a 
frequent occurrence in social evolution. An insti- 
tution^ may be defined as a rule of behavior or in- 
strument for accomplishing human purposes that 
has been rationally established; that is, approved 

2 Among the more careful formulations are the following: 

"An institution is simply a definite and established phase 
of the public mind, not different in its ultimate nature from 
public opinion, though often seeming, on account of its per- 
manence and the visible customs and symbols in which it is 
clothed, to have a somewhat distinct and independent exis- 
tence." — C. H. Cooley, Social Organization, p. 313. 

"The rules of behavior, and the actions viewed as con- 
forming or not conforming to these rules, constitute with 
regard to their objective significance a certain number of 
more or less connected and harmonious systems which can 
be generally called social institutions." — ^W. I. Thomas and 
F. Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, 
Vol. I, pp. 32-33. 

"An institution is a section of corporate human nature 
plus the machinery and the instrumentalities through which 



308 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

by the mind of the group and adopted by some 
kind of public action as a result of the formula- 
tion of public opinion and sentiment concerning 
the issue which it raised at the time of its estab- 
lishment. An institution differs from a custom 
essentially by its origin; having arisen in some 
more or less clearly defined crisis in the life of 
the group in which a period of disorganization,' 



that human nature operates." — Robert E. Park, "The City," 
American Journal of Sociology, March, 1915, p. 577. 

"An institution is a social relation that is established by 
adequate and rightful authority." — F. H. Giddings, Elements 
of Sociology, p. 175. 

"An Institution is a set of activities which a society 
adopts as its deliberately accepted method of attaining a 
deliberately approved end." — E. C. Hayes, Introduction to Soci- 
ology, p. 405. 

"First of all, in attempting a classification of the forms 
of association, we come upon the distinction between the 
sanctioned and unsanctioned forms. The sanctioned forms 
are types of relationships between individuals which have been 
reflected upon by the mass of the group in which they occur, 
and agreed to. These sanctioned forms are, then, as we have 
already said, synonymous with human institutions, because 
social sanction can rise only after self-consciousness has 
appeared. They are not found in the social groups below 
man. The tendency is manifest in all advanced stages of 
social evolution to institutionalize all forms of association. 
Nevertheless, in even the most advanced groups which we 
know, there are many unsanctioned forms or groups. These 
are the spontaneous, unreflected types of relationship between 
individuals. They especially characterize animal societies 
and the lower human groups, but in the form of the gang, the 
mob, factions, amusements, and conflicts, they characterize 
also the most advanced human groups. It is, of course, fre- 
quently very difficult to decide whether any particular form 
of association belongs to the sanctioned or the unsanctioned 
class. There might, for example, be some difference of opinion 
as to whether the saloon and the brothel were institutions in 
western civilization or not." — C. A. Ellwood, Sociology in Its 
Psychological Aspects. 

3Cf. Robert A. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, Introduction 
to the Science of Sociology, University of Chicago Press, 1921, 
p. 55. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 309 

such as that caused by disease, war, accelerated 
mobility, unrest, was followed by a more or less 
rational plan of adjustment to the changed social 
situation occasioned by the crisis, that ultimately 
attained group approval. A custom, on the 
other hand, is an unsanctioned but powerful force 
which arose without rational adjustment to a 
passed social situation. While a custom is in 
vogue, however, the members of the group must 
adhere rigidly to its practice, group condemnation 
falling upon any one who deviates, even a crisis 
may be provoked whereby the custom is made an 
institution. The characteristics of an institution, 
then, are five: (1) group approval based upon a 
belief in the value of its function in the life of 
the group; (2) physical accompaniment or em- 
bodiment in the form of a personnel, symbols, 
charters, constitutions, and the like; (3) histori- 
cal continuity, indicated by traditions, beliefs, 
sentiments, and even customs in the course of 
time, which accrue as habit displaces thought in 
the functioning of the institution; (4) organiza- 
tion for specialization and differentiation of func- 
tion; (5) relative permanency involving the estab- 
lishment of a given adjustment as a feature of the 
social organization of the group, and often a tend- 
ency toward self-perpetuation after the passing 
of the social situation in which it first took form. 
The process by which adjustments are formu- 
lated is a social movement. It originates during 
a period of disorganization of social life and 



310 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

leads the group either forward, or backward, to 
a stage of reorganization of association with 
respect to the given issue to which it is related. 
Movements, thus, are not only transitory, as has 
been stated but also indispensable operations in 
social evolution. They may be said to have be- 
come institutions when their plans of adjustment 
to the social situation in which they arose have 
been approved and adopted by the deliberate 
action of the group so that they become recog- 
nized features of the established system of 
regulative or operative arrangements in the 
organization of society at a given time and 
place. Social institutions, then, are created 
by positive movements and dissolved by nega- 
tive ones;* the former organizing a pro- 
posed adjustment, the latter disorganizing an 
established arrangement, as determined by the 
consensus of the group involved, whether com- 
munity, city, state, or nation, or even a group 
of nations, as in the case of treaties and inter- 
national law. In the transformation of a move- 
ment into an institution, the arrangement ap- 
proved and enforced by society may be of a regu- 
lative or an operative type. In the former 
instance, it is a "mould to which the relations, 
attitudes, or behavior of individuals are required 
to conform .... a channel in which activity 
must flow.'" In the latter case, it is an instru- 
ment for accomplishing a given purpose, ''when 

*Ct. p. 2 above. 

■''E. A. Ross, Principles of Sociology, 1920, p. 485. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 311 

society is intent on obtaining a service rather 
than canalizing individual conduct, a special or- 
ganized personnel working under an authority, 
charter, or constitution and provided with con- 
tinuous support. Whether the support comes 
from taxes, gifts, or fees makes no difference. 
The essential thing is that the institution is 
bound to render what is believed to be a service 
of public importance. ' "^ If this discrimination be- 
tween regulative and operative types of institu- 
tion is a real one, then the play movement has 
given rise primarily to one of the latter type, that 
is, to an adjustment to the current social situation 
that renders service of public importance by the 
sanction and support of the community. Attend- 
ance at all facilities established by the play move- 
ment is voluntary not compulsory. These 
facilities are operated in behalf of the common 
welfare according to the belief and desire of the 
group, and not for pecuniary profit to some mem- 
ber or coterie of members of the community while 
public opinion is indifferent or tolerant, as is the 
case with the motion picture, for example, in 
most American communities at the present time. 
If the question of the policy, the method of con- 
trol and support, of the motion picture industry 
in the United States were to come to the atten- 
tion of the public so as to make possible the for- 
mation of a public opinion concerning its 
administration, one that would require that films 

^Ross, op. cit. 



312 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

be produced and exhibited primarily for social 
rather than individual ends, for the common wel- 
fare instead of pecuniary profit to given persons 
engaged in it as a business, and under the super- 
vision of some branch of constituted authority, 
governmental or otherwise — as the elementary 
and high schools, the majority of our religious 
societies, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the Boy 
Scouts and Campfire Girls, not to include the 
court, the police, the fire, the street cleaning, gar- 
bage and sewage disposal departments, boards of 
health, and many more — then the motion picture 
would be institutionalized as the '' playground" 
and similar phases of the play movement have 
recently come to be. 

Until recently the play of children was in no wise a 
community concern, but a private and domestic concern. 
Now, however, the provision for play has been institutional- 
ized by the establishment of the public supervised play- 
ground, equipped with all needful apparatus, where children 
frolic under the expert direction of trained adult play 
leaders.'' 

The transformation of the play movement into 
an institution, however, has not been as simple 
nor as complete as the above statement may im- 
ply. While it is true that facilities for the play of 
children are almost universally approved and 
provided by either public or community means in 
connection with parks and schoolyards in the re- 
spective cities and rural districts throughout the 
country, there are phases of the concept of the 

^Ross, op. cit. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 313 

function and structure that have not yet been 
sanctioned by group or public action, although 
other adjustments than that of the ' 'children's 
playground" have been adopted through public 
approval. 

An analysis of the "stages" and the ''transi- 
tions ' ' in the play movement from the standpoint 
of its tendencies discloses five types of devel- 
opment in its structure and in the concept of its 
function which constitute its "trend." The 
first, is that of group sanction, by the approval 
and adoption of certain adjustments worked out 
by the movement. This tendency has not reached 
the extent of its probable development, but sig- 
nificant progress has been made since the "model 
playground" stage when the question of "munici- 
pal" support and control was first agitated, and 
also since the "small park" stage when its appli- 
cation on a fairly large scale was first made. 
During the "recreation center" and "civic art 
and welfare" stages the concept of public re- 
sponsibility for the construction and administra- 
tion of suitable and sufficient recreation facilities 
for all ages of persons was clearly presented to 
the public mind. The issue, as the problem was 
then formulated, was whether or not the people 
through their government should support and con- 
trol adequate and suitable facilities for the recrea- 
tion of young people and adults as well as for the 
play of children. That public approval was par- 
tially and incompletely given to the proposition 



314 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

is attested by the policy followed during those 
stages and the succeeding ones. Thus, during the 
"civic art and welfare" stage, although com- 
mercialized amusements were "inspected" and 
required to conform to specified regulations con- 
cerning hygienic and moral conditions, they were 
nevertheless permitted to be operated primarily 
for individual pecuniary profit rather than for 
social welfare; they were not institutionalized. 
During the "neighborhood organization" stage, 
likewise, the principal factor emphasized was that 
of community control and support, that is, insti- 
tutionalization of given opportunities for leisure- 
time occupations. Still the commercialized 
amusements remained outside the plan of adjust- 
ment. In so far as "self-support" and "self- 
control," as those terms were defined and used 
above,^ have since been attained, the movement 
may be said to have become an institution. Since, 
however, this method of administration has not 
as yet been applied to more than a very small 
percentage of the leisure-time functions of any 
community — in New York City, for example, only 
five per cent of the recreational activities are 
administered in this manner — the play movement 
as a whole can not be regarded, at present, as 
an institution; it retains in certain respects the 
features of a movement. And the daily activities 
of the Playground and Recreation Association of 
America, and Community Service, Incorporated, 

^Cf. chapter iv, transition E. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 315 

each with field secretaries and monthly publica- 
tions carrying on propaganda for public admin- 
istration of leisure-time pursuits of the people, 
indicate the present incomplete social sanction as 
they both suggest and indicate the probable con- 
summation of that fact at some future date. The 
whole field of commercialized amusements, how- 
ever, has scarcely been affected by the movement. 
The theatre, the motion-picture house, the com- 
mercial dance hall and skating rink, the shooting 
gallery, the private club, the summer and winter 
resorts, and many more, may be said to lie out- 
side the sphere of its influence at present, and 
this notwithstanding the many efforts made to 
''define standards" of leisure-time activities. 
Group sanction of the adjustments proposed by 
the movement is, then, partial and incomplete, 
but gradually extending its field of approval and 
adoption. The concept has been formulated, but 
its social significance has not gotten the attention 
of the public mind. The channel of influence in 
that direction, at present, is ''community service. " 
A second type of development, indicative of 
the nature of the "trend" of the play movement, 
is that of the physical accompaniments which 
have been produced, and in which its concept of 
function and structure have been embodied or by 
which they are now symbolized. These features 
are both regulative and operative, although for 
the most part of the latter type. Among the 
former are the "sand garden," the "playground" 



316 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

in parks and schoolyards, the ' ' athletic field, ' ' the 
"outdoor- and indoor-gymnasium," the ''small 
park," the ''swimming pool," the "bathing 
beach," the "fieldhouse," the "community cen- 
ter," the "branch library," the "public forum," 
and the "community council." Among the latter 
are "recreational legislation," "amateur athlet- 
ics" with its implements such as balls, bats, 
gloves, bases, spiked shoes, costumes, nets, jump- 
ing standards, hurdles, horses, bucks, beams, 
play-fields, goal-posts, pennants, yells, proces- 
sions and serpentines and the like, "efficiency 
tests," with their respective gold, silver, and 
bronze badges, buttons, or pins, the ' ' schedules for 
the day and week, ' ' the nine thousand ' ' play-lead- 
ers," the "group test," the "play festival," 
"street play," "block parties," "community 
sings," "self-supporting and self-governing 
clubs," and "community organization." Each of 
these respective adjustments has been either ere-, 
ated or developed by the play movement ; and each 
one has since been approved and established by 
community opinion and constituted authority, 
either governmental or otherwise. They give 
evidence of both an evolution in structure and 
concept of function and of progress toward insti- 
tutionalization. They may be regarded, in fact, 
as being institutions themselves, although from 
another concept of the movement they may be 
more accurately described as phases of the devel- 
opment of an institutionalization of play. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 317 

A third type of development distinguisMng 
the ''trend" of the play movement, is that of 
increasing historical continuity as shown in the 
accumulation of beliefs, traditions, sentiments, 
and to some extent customs, by which the public 
gains a better idea of its function in the life of 
the community. These characteristics disclose, 
also, certain developments in structure and 
changes in the concept of function, as well as inci- 
dents in the development of an institutionaliza- 
tion of play. They add the force of sentiment 
to the plan of adjustment evolved by the move- 
ment, and thus hasten the development of insti- 
tutionalization. Among the facts involved are 
those analyzed above in the study of: (1) transi- 
tion F, from "free play" and miscellaneous 
events to "directed play" and "correlated sched- 
ules," such as the classification of patrons and 
play leaders, the organization of amateur ath- 
letic competition in track, field, and aquatic 
sports, the "efficiency tests," and the organiza- 
tion of "passive" as well as "active play"; 
(2) transition H, that is, from the provision of 
facilities to the definition of standards, especially 
"recreational legislation," "play festivals," the 
rewarding of "sportsmanship," "street play," 
and annual provision of facilities; and (3) tran- 
sition I, that from individual interests to com- 
munity' activities, involving the "group test," 
the awarding of trophies to the "institution" 
instead of giving prizes to the individuals 



318 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

composing a track, field, tennis, baseball, or gym- 
nastic team, the ''neighborhood dance," and 
''community organization" for the control and 
support of recreational facilities. Some of the 
common phrases formulated to express the senti- 
ments of the movement are "fair play," and 
"good loser," in athletic competition; "take 
turns," in the use of the gymnastic apparatus; 
and "each for all and all for each," in the self- 
governing and self-supporting associations. 
Among the customs that have arisen are: "the 
return game"; the "home team acting as hostess 
to the visiting team," especially in girls' com- 
petition; the "yells" by the winning group for 
the losing team after the contest, and the asso- 
ciation of "formal activities" with the indoor 
gymnasium and of "informal events" with the 
outdoor gymnasium. 

A fourth aspect of the "trend" is that of 
increasing organization, involving specialization 
and diiferentiation in function. This trait was 
disclosed above by the study, in chapter iv, of 
transitions A, B, C, E, F, and G, respectively. 
Transition A showed an increase in organization 
with respect to the age groups involved; B, with 
respect to the length of time during the year in 
which the facilities were operated, thus increasing 
the organization of the schedule and the person- 
nel in order to meet the differences in play due 
to the respective seasons ; C, concerning the place, 
whether indoors or outdoors, and consequently 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 319 

the typefe of activities; E, the method of control 
and support, whether philanthropic, public, or 
community, the last method being much more 
complicated and difficult of execution, although 
permitting a more diversified and complete pro- 
vision than either of the former; F, was con- 
fined almost exclusively to the evidence of in- 
creasing organization, since the facts which it 
contained related to the classification of both 
patrons and leaders of the play center, the organ- 
ization of athletic competition, '' efficiency tests," 
and the posting of ''schedules" or sequences of 
events for the class period, the day, the week, and 
the year ; and G, from a simple to a complex field 
of activities, involving greater variety and thus 
specialization and differentiation, since all attend- 
ing the play center would not, of course, partici- 
pate in all of the activities taking place at the 
same time, such a fact would be a physical impos- 
sibility as well as a psychological undesirability 
on their part. Yet by the presence of a complex 
field under specialized leadership and grouping, 
the interest of a greater number of persons is 
obtained and their participation in play activities 
made more regular and of greater social value. 
This is the function of organization in the play 
center and in the community. Under "commu- 
nity service" this principle is being extended to 
activities outside of the center in connection with 
efforts toward a definition of standards for the 
use of leisure time, as shown in transition H. 



320 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

A fifth aspect of the *' trend" of the play 
movement is also one indicative of growth in 
structure and change in idea of function as well 
as progress toward institutionalization, namely, 
the relative permanency of the adjustments exe- 
cuted. The play movement is now thirty-six 
years old; the Playground and Recreation Asso- 
ciation is now in its fifteenth year. It is of 
interest, therefore, in closing the present analysis 
of its "trend," to determine to what extent the 
original adjustments are now being advocated 
and whether or not they dominate the current 
idea of function so as to impair the efficacy of 
the movement; that is, whether the original pat- 
tern by which they were organized has prevented 
the development of others, correlative with them, 
as experience accumulated. This is what is 
meant by "relative permanency" of the adjust- 
ments proposed. Some of the original ones still 
survive, but, as has been disclosed above, they 
have not prevented the development of others. 
The concept of the structure and function of the 
movement has been relatively permanent and not 
inflexible, changeless, throughout its history. In 
fact, some of the later structures are receiving 
greater attention than the earlier ones. Thus, 
among the early adjustments that still survive, 
are: the "sand garden" and the "playground," 
which date from the original stage of the move- 
ment and have since become institutions ; and the 
idea of leadership of play, of schedules of events, 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 321 

and of public support, whicli date from the second 
stage of its history, and are also institutions. 
While these original or early features are still 
utilized, it seems that they have interfered in no 
way with the development of others, some of 
which have been established, and whose nature 
has been described above under the head of phys- 
ical accompaniment. Their repetition is there- 
fore unnecessary here. But the fact that they 
are retained and have appeared successively is 
the point to be noted in this connection. That 
fact discloses an evolution in structure and con- 
cept of function as well as a degree of institu- 
tionalization of play. As to the future, it is not 
within the limits of this study to predict, but, if 
it resembles the past, it will involve a continua- 
tion of the process described above for at least 
an indefinite period of time, that is, new struc- 
tures and ideas of function will appear in the 
effort to make a more perfect adjustment. There 
is nothing that indicates even a remote possi- 
bility, however, of the discontinuance of such 
features of the movement as provision: (1) for 
all ages of people; (2) throughout the year; 
(3) by both indoor and outdoor activities; (4) in 
all communities, whether urban or rural, whether 
populated by the poor or the rich; (5) with 
directed, as well as free, play involving correlated 
schedules and the classification of both patrons 
and leaders; (6) by community support and con- 
trol as well as subsidy from the public treasury 



322 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

and philanthropy; (7) including opportunities for 
all manner of wholesome use of leisure time, such 
as manual, physical, aesthetic, social, and civic 
interests; (8) emphasizing standards of sports- 
manship and behavior believed to be conducive 
to the public welfare by all persons, whether in 
the play center or elsewhere; (9) with increasing 
insistence upon group rather than individual pur- 
poses, thus magnifying co-operation and correla- 
tion rather than competition and displacement of 
individuals through conflict. These facts are 
clearly defined in the minds of those promoting 
the movement and have been sanctioned, also, by 
most communities in one degree or another. The 
tendency and the history is toward their exten- 
sion rather than their restriction. 

The "trend" of the play movement, there- 
fore, is unquestionably toward an elaboration of 
structure with correlative changes in concept of 
function, involving institutionalization, with much 
already made a fact. The full development of 
public opinion on all the phases of the concept 
of the structure and function of the movement, 
however, has not yet been reached. Among the 
adjustments that have rarely or never received 
group approval today are: the supervision of 
passive play, the conduct of community play- 
ground camps, the substitution of "neighborhood 
dances" for the commercialized dance hall and 
academy, the awarding of victory in athletic com- 
petition to sportsmanship rather than for the 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 323 

higher score, the conduct of inter-playground dec- 
lamation contests, street-play under trained lead- 
ership, inter-community center devices for raising 
money to support self -maintenance of leisure-time 
activities, community presses and thoroughly 
democratic public forums for the discussion of 
local, national, and international questions of 
public policy, and the whole field of commercial- 
ized amusements which are now maintained for 
private profit while the community is indifferent 
as it was formerly toward the problems of child 
play, and the many other adjustments discussed 
in the preceding pages. 

While it is true, as EUwood has pointed out, 
that there are many relationships between the 
members of an advanced society that are not and 
may never become institutionalized, and while he 
would doubtless include many types of play 
among such relationships, yet, as he also said, it 
is the tendency of all advanced societies to extend 
institutionalization. The probable limits of an 
elaboration in structure and concept of function 
and of the institutionalization of play have not 
been reached in the present age of more or less 
iiisorganization, characterized, on the one hand, 
by social isolation, unrest, crowd phenomena, dis- 
eases of degeneration, alien immigration, and the 
breaking down of the neighborhood or local com- 
munity relation between members of the same 
vicinity, and, on the other hand, by the growth 
of the democratic spirit and of co-operation in 



324 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

industry. Shall play escape tlie influences of the 
expanding collectivism? Will not a future gen- 
eration discern, what is believed by the leaders 
of the current play movement, the inconsistency 
of the present attitude of the public mind toward 
the problem of play whereby millions are being 
expended in the maintenance of public facilities, 
for the use of leisure, that are socially productive 
as far as they succeed in attracting the pleasure 
seeking groups, that in our largest city, and the 
one most generous in public support of recrea- 
tional opportunities, meet only five per cent of 
the need, while unscrupulous persons commer- 
cialize the play of the people for private gain, 
exploiting a legitimate desire of the public and 
debasing the social sense, as was forcibly stated 
above in a quotation from J. R. Richards in the 
discussion of the ''neighborhood organization" 
stage, but which may well deserve a repetition 
here: 

Commercial recreation has signally failed to meet the 
demands of the people during the leisure period. Public 
(i, e., socially institutionalized) recreation consciously aiming 
at the things agreed, as best in our social organism, we feel, 
must take its place. 

Commercial recreation is charged with ; debasing the 
tastes of the people; offering passive (i. e., spectatorship) 
recreation only; anti-social tendencies in breaking up the 
family groups seeking pleasure ; consorting with vice ; levying 
a terrible tax — perhaps over a hundred and fifty million a 
year in Chicago; never attempting developmental or educa- 
tional programs. 



THE TREND OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 325 

Shall the public, rather than given individuals, 
enter the field of '^ commercialized " play by own- 
ing and operating all recreational agencies as it 
now does most of the bathing beaches by requir- 
ing a small fee for their utilization,^ or by some 
other less collectivistic plan, perhaps one similar 
to the United States railroad administration, or 
the United States telegraph control, and the like 
during the Great War? The financial difficulties 
are perhaps the least doubtful ones, since, as 
Zueblin" has figured it out, the cities of the 
United States of over one hundred thousand 
population expended, during the year 1912, 
$110,000,000 for public education, while five years 
earlier, the private street railways of those same 
vicinities netted a profit of $138,000,000; the 
inference being, of course, that if the cities had 
owned the street car systems operating within 
their borders and, as Zueblin ironically remarked, 
had operated them no less efficiently, they 
could have reduced their school tax by the con- 
siderable amount of $28,000,000, or 25.4 per cent, 
or could have applied that significant sum to the 
cost of providing wholesome opportunities for 
the social use of leisure. It is not the public 
supervision of the play of the school children, 
comprising only 20 per cent of the population, 

^The first year the Clarendon Beach of Chicago was open, 
the operating expenses amounted to $40,000, while the number 
of adult patrons was 400,000; thus at 10 cents each the beach 
was self-supporting. 

loCharles Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, 1916, 
p. 32. 



326 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

that is the most significant fact in the scheme of 
socialized recreation, important and necessary as 
that may be, but it is rather the control of the 
remaining 80 per cent of the population during 
the sixty-four hours per week in which even the 
laboring element is at leisure. (Figured on the 
basis of an eight-hour day six days per week and 
without deducting for the national holidays, the 
stormy days, nor the periods of unemployment 
and convalescence.) As Jane Addams^^ has said, 
the city utilizes the labor of these people during 
the day and wrings from them their meager earn- 
ings when night comes, for the problem of play 
in America, as MacKaye^^ has pointed out, is 
essentially the problem of ' ' the night leisure. ' ' 

It is toward the formulation of adjustments 
that shall ensure the social utilization of all lei- 
sure through the organization of opportunities 
for participation in behavior that is both person- 
ally developmental and socially constructive, the 
upbuilding of personality, that the play move- 
ment seems to be tending. In play now, as never 
before, may the majority of our population find 
opportunities for ''new experiences" and "recog- 
nition"; work is too specialized and monotonous 
to afford the fulfilment of those "wishes" except 
for a very few. 

"Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, 
1909, p. 8. 

i^Percy MacKaye, The Civic Theatre in Its Relation to the 
Redemption of Leisure, 1912, p. 35. 



VI. CONCLUSION 

The facts involved in the history of the play 
movement in the United States have now been 
analyzed. It has been found that there has been 
an evolution both in its structure and in its con- 
cept of function in adjustment to the modern 
social situation. The original scheme of adjust- 
ment has not served as the pattern of action 
throughout its history. Both the idea and its 
physical and social embodiments have changed 
from time to time as experience altered what was 
believed ought to be done in order to effect a more 
acceptable adjustment to the current social situa- 
tion with respect to play. 

The analysis of events reported above has 
shown that the play movement originated with 
the "sand gardens" in Boston in 1885, since that 
event, while not the first conscious provision for 
play in the United States, was the first of the 
connected series which is known as "the play 
movement," also sometimes referred to as "the 
playground movement," or "the playground and 
recreation movement." This fact was estab- 
lished by the evidence related to the influence of 
these "sand gardens" upon the development of 
provision for play, first, for little children and 
progressively later for youths and adults, in the 
City of Boston; and, second, the leadership of 
Boston during the early stages of the movement. 

327 



328 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

It was shown that there is a great difference 
between the structure and the concept of the 
function of the movement during the first decade 
and that at the present time. The "sand gar- 
dens" were provided for little children, were 
operated only during a short summer vacation 
period, were unsupervised and maintained by- 
philanthropic support, were equipped with out- 
door facilities and located in the most congested 
sections of the city, and permitted only manual 
play based on an individualistic point of view; 
but, today, the play movement endeavors to make 
provision for all ages of people, throughout the 
year; in both indoor and outdoor activities, in 
rural and suburban communities as well as in the 
crowded urban districts, by the use of directed 
play, as well as unorganized activities, involving 
correlated schedules, trained play leaders, and 
the classification of patrons ; by including oppor- 
tunities for all kinds of wholesome uses of leisure 
time, such as physical, aesthetic, social, and civic, 
in addition to the manual play of the first sand 
gardens; by emphasizing standards of sports- 
manship believed to be conducive to the public 
welfare and to be followed by all persons during 
their leisure time, whether within or without the 
specially provided play centers ; and, with a com- 
munity rather than an individualistic purpose in 
view. 

The details of the origin of the movement were 
presented in chapter ii above, those of the struc- 



CONCLUSION 329 

ture and concept of function that prevailed during 
the first stage, were given in division A of chap- 
ter iii, while the facts relative to the changes 
that have taken place in the concept of function 
were told in the respective transitions A to I, in 
chapter iv, and those that had reference to the 
development of structure were related in the dis- 
cussion of the last six stages, chapter iii. The 
tendencies were disclosed in chapter v, and sum- 
marized at the close of that portion of the report. 
The difference between the structure and idea 
of function which characterized the movement at 
the time of its inception, and that which distin- 
guishes it at present, has come about by an 
orderly and progressive development, a growth 
from simplicity to complexity in the scheme of 
adjustment — an evolution. This evolution was 
characterized, in the first place, by seven more or 
less clearly defined periods of emphasis upon cer- 
tain features in the concept of its function which 
were correlative with the incorporation of par- 
ticular changes in structure. These periods con- 
stituted the sand garden, model playground, 
small park, recreation center, neighborhood or- 
ganization, civic art and welfare, and community 
service stages. The evolution of the movement 
was distinguished, in the second place, by nine 
changes in its policy and activities that were fun- 
damental to its stages, but not coterminous with 
them, and that were designated above as transi- 
tions. These transitions were: from provision 



330 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

for little children to that for all ages of people; 
from facilities operated during the summer only 
to those maintained throughout the year; from 
outdoor equipment and activities only to both 
outdoor and indoor facilities and events; from 
congested urban districts to both urban and rural 
communities; from philanthropic to community 
support and control; from free play and miscel- 
laneous events to directed play with organized 
activities and correlated schedules; from a sim- 
ple to a complex field of activities including man- 
ual, physical, aesthetic, social, and civic projects; 
from the provision of facilities to the definition 
of standards for the use of leisure time; and 
from individualistic interests to community activ- 
ities. In the third place, the development of the 
play movement, as analyzed above, disclosed a 
definite trend toward an integration rather than 
a dissolution of its scheme of adjustment, which, 
incidentally, tends toward institutionalization. 
This trend comprises: the public sanctioning of 
many plans of adjustment proposed by the move- 
ment ; the creation of certain physical accompani- 
ments, which have come to embody certain aspects 
of its structure and function ; the development of 
historical continuity shown in the gradual accu- 
mulation of beliefs, tradition, sentiments, and, to 
a limited extent, customs ; the increase in organi- 
zation involving specialization and differentiation 
in function with a greater complexity of the 
field of activities; and the fact of relative per- 



CONCLUSION 331 

manency, by which certain features of the origi- 
nal pattern of adjustment are still retained but do 
not dominate the concept of function sufficiently 
to preclude the addition of others as experience 
indicates, from time to time, their expediency. 

Thus there has been an evolution in the struc: 
ture and the concept of the function of the pla| 
movement in the United States as the result ot 
numerous attempts to bring about an adjustment 
to the modern social situation with respect to play. 
This evolution has involved a series of conscious 
attempts designed to bring about the social util-^ 
ization of all leisure through the provision of 
opportunities for participation by all ages of 
people in behavior that is both personally devel- 
opmental and socially constructive. The probable 
summit of achievement in the development of a 
technique for the control of leisure has not been 
attained by the movement; it will most likely 
continue to, develop for many years to come ; but 
this fact does not dim the truth of the statement 
that there has already been an evolution in that 
direction. Many instances of an institutionaliza- 
tion of play have been cited above, and some 
application of science has been made in the for- 
mulations of its plans of adjustment. And, if 
the present writer were attempting to state what 
ought to be, instead of what is and how it came 
about, he would advise an extension of the pres- 
ent scheme until science gives us more light upon 
the nature and function of play. 



'^ 



APPENDIX A 

The sources consulted in arranging the account here 

given of the origin of the play movement include the fol- 
lowing : 

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence, March, 1910; relating to developments in Chicago and 
Philadelphia. 

Annual Reports, Boston Park Commissioners, especially 1888, 

Annual Report, Brooklyn Park Commissioners, especially 1897, 

Annual Reports, Brooklyn Society for Parks and Playgrounds, 
Brooklyn, 

Annual Reports, Children's Playground Association of Balti- 
more, Baltimore. 

Annual Report, Department of Parks, New York City, 1902, 
pp. 35-45, 

Annual Reports, Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Asso- 
dation, Boston, for 1885-1901, 

Annual Reports, New York Society for Parks and Playgrounds, 
New York City. 

Annual Reports of Pittsburgh Playground Association, Pitts- 
burgh, especially for 1908, which contains chronology of 
events in that city. 

Annual Reports of the Philadelphia City Open Park Associa- 
tion, for later events in Philadelphia. 

Annual Reports, Provident Free Kindergarten Association, 
Providence, especially 1894-97. 

Annual Reports, Union for Practical Progress, Providence, 
R. I., for beginnings in Providence. 

Annual Report, United States Bureau of Education, 1903, con- 
taining an article on playground developments in the 
United States. 

Annual Reports, South Park Commissioners, Chicago, 

American, Sadie, "The Movement for Small Playgrounds," 
American Journal of Sociology, September, 1898, pp, 159-76, 

Betts, Lillian N., "Tenement House Life and Recreation," 
Municipal Affairs, March, 1899, pp. 164-5, 

Curtis, H, S,, The Play Movement and Its Significance, The 
Macmillan Co,, 1917, 

332 



APPENDIX 333 

Hull-House Papers, Chicago, 1895. 

Lee, Joseph, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, The 

Macmillan Co., 1902. Chapter xvi, "Public Recreation." 
League of Social Service, "Recreation Plus Education," Munic- 
ipal Affairs, September, 1898, pp. 433-38. Origin of vacation 
schools in New York City. 
Mero, E. B., American Playgrounds. Baker & Taylor Co., 1908, 
New York. Valuable because it contains extracts from an 
unpublished thesis by H. H. Buxton, prepared while a 
student at the Y. M. C. A. Training School, Springfield, 
Mass. 
O'Brien, E. C, "Recreation Piers," Municipal Affairs, Septem- 
ber, 1897, pp. 509-14. 
Playground, The, "A Brief History of the Playground Move- 
ment in America." April, and May, 1915. A statement of 
facts gathered by the association, no author, dates quite 
inaccurate. 
Proceedings of the Playground Association of America, Vol. 

Ill, for outline of early history of movement. 
"Public Playgrounds for Children," Nineteenth Century Magcfi 

zine, 1893, pp. 267-71. 
Riis, Jacob A., A Ten Years' War, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 

1900. Refers to developments in New York City. 
Riis, Jacob A., "Small Parks and Public Playgrounds," jffarper's 

Weekly, September 11, 1897, 
Robinson, Charles Mulford, "Improvement of City Life," Atlan- 
tic Monthly, April, 1899, pp. 533-36. Relates early develop- 
ments in general. 
Tolman, William H., "Vacation Schools in New York," Review 

of Reviews, August, 1897. 
Tsanoff, Stoyan Vasil, "Children's Playgrounds," Municipal 

Affairs, 1898, p. 578. 
"Vacation Schools," editorial. Charities, September 6, 1902. 
Origin of vacation schools with classification in four 
groups, playground, workshop, experimental laboratory, and 
annex to public school. 
Wharton, G. W. "Municipal Playgrounds," Gardens and 

Forests, December 16, 1898. 
Wharton, G. W., "Playgrounds for City Schools," Harpers, 
LXVIII. 



334 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Zueblin, Charles, American Municipal Progress, The Macmillan 
Co., 1916, chapter xvi, "Public Recreation." 

Zueblin, Charles, "Municipal Playgrounds in Chicago," Amer- 
ican Journal of Sociology, September, 1898, pp. 145-58. 

APPENDIX B 

Classification, Registration, and Eligibility of Athleies in 
THE South Paek Rbcbeation System, Chicago.^ 

These classifications are to serve in all South Park 
Sports, such as track athletics, basket-ball, swimming, wres- 
tling, baseball or any other sport that may be adopted from 
time to time for interpark contests and tournaments. These 
classifications pertain only to the sport in which the man 
is involved as a competitor. He may be a closed division 
track man, but an open division wrestler or basket-ball 
player. 

closed division 

A closed division man is one who has not, since the 
opening of the park he represents, competed ''unattached" 
or for any club other than the South Park. This means 
that a man who has competed on a high-school team, col- 
lege team, Y. M. C, A. team, athletic club team, Bible-class 
team, or any other team, or as an individual in ''open com- 
petition, ' ' is not eligible to compete in closed division sports. 

Competing in school (high school or college) ^as a mem- 
ber of a class team against another class team or teams, 
in the same school would not make a man ineligible for 
closed division competition. 

Competing within one separate and distinct institution 
of any character will affect a man's eligibility as defined 
in the above paragraph on "competing in school," etc. 

OPEN DIVISION 

An open division man is one who may have competed 
for a high school, college, Y. M. C. A., athletic club, or dif- 

^Annual Report of South Park Commissioners, 1910, pp. 43 t. 



APPENDIX 335 

ferent clubs, or ''unattached," but who at the time of com- 
petition in South Park meets is not registered "unattached" 
or for any other club than the South Park. This means that 
any man registered "unattached" or for a club of any 
kind, except for South Park, is ineligible. To be eligible, 
the man must either not be registered in other clubs, or be 
registered for South Park. A man may not resign his regis- 
tration in any organization and thus become eligible to com- 
pete in open division sports. 

NOVICE (closed division) 

A novice is one who has not won a first, second, or third 
place in any event in a South Park meet or in open com- 
petition. 

CLASSIFIED (closed DIVISION) 

A classified man is one who has won a first, second, or 
third place in a South Park closed division meet. South Park 
open division meet, or in open competition. 

NOVICE (open division) 

A novice is one who has not won a first, second, or third 
place in open competition or in a meet of two or more clubs 
or institutions of the same or different character. 

classified (open division) 
A classified man is one who has won a first, second, or 
third place in open competition or in a meet open to two 
or more clubs or institutions of the same or different 
character. 

RELAY RACES 

Relay races in South Park meets will not be taken into 
consideration when classifying men "novice" or "unclassi- 
fied." Relay races in "open competition" will be regarded 
as other events are regarded for purposes of classification. 

AMATEUR 

Only those who observe the best amateur standards in 
sport will be allowed to compete in interpark contests and 
tournaments. An amateur is a person who has: (1) never 



336 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

competed for a money prize; (2) never competed under a 
false name; (3) never knowingly competed with a profes- 
sional for a prize; (4) never knowingly competed with a 
professional where gate money was charged; (5) never pur- 
sued, worked at, or assisted in, any branches of athletics, 
gymnastics, or aquatics as a teacher or instructor, for a 
salary paid directly or indirectly for such service. 

BEGISTKATION 

No one may compete in any interpark contest unless reg- 
istered with the park he represents at least thirty days prior 
to day of competition. 

For further information concerning classifications and 
registration see the instructor. 

Membership on one of the teams, classification, and 
right to compete as a representative in any park is secured 
by filling out and forwarding to the administrative office 
the following form : 

(Front) 

SOUTH PARK COMMISSIONERS 

DEPARTMENT OP PIELDHOUSES AND PLAYGROUNDS 

Application foe Athletic Registration 

Date 



Name 

(Print your name.) 



Address 



Park j^i^i«i'°^ {?&:::: :::.■:: 

Are you under suspension by any athletic governing body? 

What athletic organizations have you represented at any time? 



What organization did you last represent?. 
When? What event?. . 



APPENDIX 337 



I hereby give my word of honor that I have not violated, 
nor will I violate, any of the amateur clauses set forth on the 
reverse side of this form, I also agree to abide by the spirit 
as well as the letter of amateur sport as set forth from time 
to time in the rules and regulations issued by the South Park 
authorities. 

In attaching my signature below, I certify that I have 
read and that I understand the terms of my registration, as 
set forth on either side of this form. 



Signed. 



As soon as the athlete has been classified he is given 
the following membership card: 

(Front) 

SOUTH PARK COMMISSIONERS 

DEPARTMENT OF PIELDHOUSES AND PLAYGROUNDS 

Athletic Meimbeeship Cabd 

This Certifies that 



of is registei'ed as 

(Park) 
Division athlete, and is entitled to compete in any sport pro- 



moted by the above park on and after. 



Number Expires. 



This card will be recalled if any of the rules governing 
athletic competition in the South Park system are violated 
by the person holding the same. 

The rules printed on the reverse side of this card must be 
strictly observed. 

(Back) 
1. This card is not transferable. 2. Must be shown when 
requested. 3. Is valid only as long as bearer is a member of 
and represents park named on other side. 4. No individual 
may hold a registration card for more than one park. 5. Is 
not valid unless signed by athlete whose name is on opposite 
side. 

Sign here , 



338 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

In order to insure fair play in all of the dual and 
interpark contests, the names of athletes who compose the 
teams are forwarded from park to park or to the main 
administrative office on the following form : 

SOUTH PARK COMMISSIONERS 
DEPARTMENT OF FIELDHOUSES AND PLAYGROUNDS 

Certificate of Eligibility 

Park Date 19 

To 

This is to certify that the contestants named below are bona 

fide members of ( Park ) 

and are registered in the Department of Fieldhouses and Play- 
grounds as amateurs and are in every way qualified to repre- 



sent this park in the 

at Date 19 

Instructor must sign on the line below the last contestant's 
name. 



APPENDIX 



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APPENDIX F 

Weekly ScHEa)TJLE,* Hamilton Park Pieldhouse, 1915-16 
The following table of fieldhouse activities that are 
open to the public during the indoor season expresses the 
scheme of administration in operation during 1915-16. It 
was arranged by the present writer while director of Hamil- 
ton Park and was published without his knowledge in The 
Playground, June, 1916. 

REGULAR AFTERNOON ACTIVITIES 

Monday — 

Gymnasium: Girls, 9-10 years, 3:30; 13 and over, 4:30. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 9-10 years, 3:30; high school boys, 4:30. 

Table Games: Boys and girls, 4:00-5:00. 
Tuesday — 

Gymnasium: Girls, 7-8 years, 3:30; 11-12 years, 4:30. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 7-9 years, 3:30; 12-13 years, 4:30. 

Children's Chorus: Boys and girls, 3:30-4:30. 

Kindergarten: Boys and girls, 4:00-5:00. 

Minerva Women's Club: First and third Tuesdays, 2:00. 

Gymnasium: Women's class, 2:00-3:00. 

Civic League, 32nd Ward: First Tuesday, 2:00-4:00. 
Wednesday — 

Gymnasium: Children, under 7 years, 3:30; girls' team, 
game practice and rehearsals, 4:30-6:00. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 10-12 years, 3:30; matched practice 
games, 4:30-5:00. 

Table Games: Boys and girls, 4:00-5:30. 

Dramatics: Junior, Sections A and B, 4:00-5:00. 
Thursday — 

Gymnasium : Girls, 9-10 years, 3:30; 13 years and over, 4 : 30. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 9-10 years, 3:30; high school boys, 4:30. 

Story Hour: Children, under 10 years, 4:00; over 10, 4:30. 
Friday — 

Gymnasium: Girls, 7-8 years, 3:30; 11-12 years, 4:30. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 7-9 years, 3:30; 10-12 years, 4:30. 
•The above list of activities is not complete. It does not 
Include the regular meetings of private clubs, classes, dances, 
parties, receptions, concerts, recitals, etc., that are held daily 
In the fieldhouse. The following facilities should also be 
added: the Librarj% a branch of the Chicago Public Library, 
open on week days from 1:00-9:00 P. M. and on Sundays from 
1:00-6:00; the Shower Baths, open dally from 12:00-9:30 P. M. 



APPENDIX 343 

Children's Chorus: Boys and girls, 4:30-5:30. 
/7 Gymnasium: Girls, plays and games, 1:30-3:00; class, 
(' 3:00-4:00. 

Gymnasium: Boys, 85 lb., team practice, 1:30-2:30; team 
organization, 2:30-3:30; Hamilton Park Gym. Team, 

''jf^, .„_i,:45-5:30. 

' Saturday—^ 

Grammar School Social Dancing Class, 2:00-3:00. 
Doll Club, children, 2:00-3:00. 
Table Games, 3:00-5:00. 
Interpretive Dancing, 2:00-3:00. 
Sunday — 

Gymnasium: Girls, directed plays and games, 1:30-6:00. 
Gymnasium: Boys, under 15, 1:30-3:30; over 15, 3:30- 

4:30; matched games, 4:30-6:00. 
Pleasant Hour: October-December and March- April, 3:30. 
Civic Music Concerts: January and February at 3:30. 

REGULAE EVENING ACTIVITIES 

Monday — 

Colonial Class: Folk-dances, alternate Mondays, 8:30-10:30. 
Community Dancing Class: Sec. A, alternate Mondays, 

8:30-10:30. 
Civic Music Chorus: 8:15-10:30. 
Boy Scouts' Drill: 7:30-8:30. 
Gymnasium: Women beginning, 7:30; advanced, 8:30- 

9:30. 
Gymnasium: Employed boys, 7:30; business men, 8:30- 

10:00; wrestling, 8:00-10:00. 
Tuesday — 

Hamilton Park Neighborhood Council: Second Tuesday, 

8:00-10:00. 
Gresham Treble Clef Club: First and third Tuesdays, 

8:00-10:00. 
Gymnasium: Women's advanced, 7:30-8:30, 8:30-9:15. 
Gymnasium: Young men's class, 7:30-9:30. 
Ladies' Modern Social Dancing Class (private): 8:00-9:00. 
Wednesday — 

Adults' Social Dancing Class (private): 7:30-9:30. 
Gymnasium: Advanced girls, 7:30-9:30. 
Gymnasium: Men's matched games, 7:30-10:00. 



344 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Thursday — 

Ladies' Modern Dancing Class: 7:30-8:30. 

Community Dancing Class, Sec. B: Alternate Thursdays, 
8:30. 

Gymnasium : Women beginning, 7 : 30 ; advanced, 8 : 30-9 : 30. 

High School Modern Social Dancing Class: Alternate Thurs- 
days, 8:30-9:30. 
Friday — 

Boy Scout Drill: 7:30-9:30. 

Parent-Teachers' Association: 2nd Friday, 8:00-10:00, 

Gymnasium: Advanced Women, 7:30-8:30; 8:30-9:30. 

Gymnasium: Young Men's Class, 7:30-8:30. 

Young Peoples' Dramatic Club: 8:00-10:00. 
Saturday — 

Special Adults' Modern Social Dancing Class: 7:30-8:30. 

Gymnasium: Men's, Matched Games, 7:30-10:00. 

Gymnasium: Women's, Advanced Girls, 7:30-9:30. 

APPENDIX G 

Palmer Park Yezarly Calendar,* 1915 
Data concerning activities of the groups which the park 
is promoting and with which the park is co-operating. 

indoor season, OCTOBER TO END OF MAY 

October — 

1. Gymnasium: Formal opening and registration for 
classes. 

2. Choral Society: Beginning of rehearsals for winter 
season. 

3. Soccer Football: Teams playing every Saturday. 

4. Rugby Football: Games Saturday and Sunday. 
November — 

1. Plays: Palmer Players. 

2. Civics Club: Initiation of new members (from the 
8th grade). 

3. Soccer Football League: Championship games. 

4. Rugby Football: Continues until Thanksgiving. 

♦This calendar does not include all uses of the recreation 
center facilities but only those established by the adminis- 
tration or organized by neighborhood organizations for com- 
munity purposes; thus numerous dances, parties, club meetings, 
rehearsals, etc., are omitted. 



APPENDIX 345 

December — 

1. Concerts: Choral Society. 

2. Plays: Palmer Players; Christmas plays by Children's 
Dramatics. 

3. Christmas Parties: United Charities for poor children; 
Girls' Gymnasium classes. 

Janvxiry — 

1. Pleasant Hour Series: Beginning second Sunday in 
January and continuing every Sunday until May. 

2. Skating: Three acres of ice is provided during freezing 
weather. 

3. Recitals: Local teachers and conservatories. 

4. Celebration: Annual "Burns" celebration by Scottish 
Club. 

Fehruary — 

1. Pleasant Hours Series: Sundays at 3:30. 

2. Plays: Palmer Players. 

3. Basket-ball: Match games and tournaments, Wednesdays 
and Saturday evenings. 

4. Volley-ball: Tournaments for girls held Saturday even- 
ings and afternoons. 

5. Recitals: Given by local teachers and conservatories. 

6. Lincoln's Birthday: Celebration by Veterans and 
Daughters of Veterans. 

March — 

1. Pleasant Hours Series: Sundays at 3:30. 

2. Concerts: Palmer Park Musical Society. 

3. Exhibit: Chicago Tuberculosis Institute during first 
two weeks. Programs every afternoon and evening. 
Lectures, entertainments, plays, recitals, moving pictures, 
etc. 

4. Artists' Fete: Annual banquet and dance of members 
and friends of Art Club. 

5. Plays: Junior Dramatic Club, and Palmer Players, 
April — 

1. Pleasant Hour Series: Sundays at 3:30. 

2. Exhibition: Annual gymnastic exhibition by girls' and 
boys' gymnasium classes. 

3. Plays: Palmer Players, and Children's Dramatic Club. 

4. Annual Exhibit of Art Classes. 



346 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

May — 

1. Concerts: Palmer Park Musical Society. 

2. Plays: Palmer Players. 

3. Gymnasium: Closing of indoor work and opening of 
outdoor gymnasiums. 

4. Baseball: Inter-grammar school league; other match 
games played Saturdays and Sundays. 

5. Recitals: Graduations of conservatories and teachers 
of music. 

6. Memorial Service: Regular service on Memorial Day by 
G. A. R. 

OUTDOOK SEASON, JUNE TO END OF SEPTEMBBSt 

June — 

1. Svi^imming: Pool opened (suit and towel furnished). 
Hours, 10:00 a." m. to 10:00 p. m. Girls' days, Tuesday 
and Friday. Boys' days, Monday, Wednesday forenoon, 
Thursday, Saturday, Sunday afternoon. 

2. Play Festival: Afternoon program furnished by grade 
schools, Park, and Turners. Evening by Park, high 
schools and Turners. 

3. Cricket: Cricket team starts regular practice. 

4. Tennis: Tournaments. 

5. Baseball: Match games Saturdays and Sundays. 
July — 

1. July Fourth: Water circus in swiming pool. 

2. Concerts: Community chorus of 500 gives annual out- 
door concert. Band concerts every two weeks. 

3. Activities: Daily, swimming, tennis, baseball, and out- 
door gymnasiums. 

August — 

1. Concerts: Band concerts every other week. 

2. Activities: Daily, swimming, baseball, tennis and out- 
door gymnasium. 

3. Meets: Track meets and athletic tests in outdoor gym- 
nasiums. 

Septemher— 

1. Pageant: Program supplied on Labor Day in Play Field. 

2. Activities: Regular outdoor work continued. 



APPENDIX 



347 



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APPENDIX 



351 



Community Bicycle Trip. 
Roosevelt Anniversary. 
Home Gardens Contests. 
Home Arts Exhibit. 
Community Nights. 
Hoop Rolling Tournament. 
Pleasant Sunday Afternoons. 
Nutrition & Dietetics Courses. 
Forum. Movies. 
Home Nursing Course. 
Columbus Day Celebration. 
Citizenship Week. 


Home Decoration Institute. 
Model Glider Tournament. 
Model Airplane Tournament. 
Story-telling Contests. 
Amateurs' Nights. 
Pleasant Sunday Afternoons. 
Community Nights. 
Home Nursing Course. 
Nutrition & Dietetics Courses. 
Forum. Movies. 
Thanksgiving Day Celebra- 
tion. Lecture Courses. 


Winter Foods Institute. 

Declamation Contests. 

Debating Contests. 

Loan Art Exhibit. 

Pleasant Sunday Afternoons. 

Community Nights. 

Movies. Forum. Lectures. 


Pushmobile Preliminaries. 
Halloween Parade: 

Novel, Amusing, and Artistic 

Costumes. 


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Christmas Celebration. 
Community Tree. 
Community Caroling, etc. 


Soccer, cont. 

Pushmobile Tournament. 
Tricycle Races. 
P. S. A. L.: 
Grammar School Soccer, 
Boys' Grammar School 
Volley-ball, Girls'. 


Soccer, cont. 
P. S. A. L.: 

Girls' Volley-ball, cont. 

Boys' Soccer, cont. 


P. S. A. L.: 
Girls' Volley-ball, cont. 
Boys' Soccer, cont. 


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December 



352 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

APPENDIX I 

SOUTH PARK MERIT SYSTEM OF SCORING 
Basket-baix League, 1920-21. 

The Grammar School League consists of Chicago Public 
Grammar School and Parochial Schools in the South Park 
district. Each scheduled game will be scored on a Sports- 
manship basis, as follows: 

Sportsmanship 60 points 

Reliability 10 " 

Winning 30 " 

SPORTSMANSHIP 

Sportsmanship to include: (1) fouls and infractions 
of the rules, charged to a team; (2) prompt acceptance of 
the oflQcial's decisions; (3) language and conduct of players 
during the contest; (4) conduct of spectators and partisans 
of a team during the game; (5) conduct of team and fol- 
lowers, to and from game. 

RELIABILITY 

Reliability to include: (1) promptly appearing for play 
at scheduled hour and date; (2) faithfully carrying out all 
rules as to eligibility; (3) captain's having line-up ready 
for scorers (this rule is to punish trickery of any kind). 

WINNING 

The team that wins will be credited with 30 points. 

SPORTSMANSHIP MARKINGS 

Sportsmanship, in all games, will be marked as indicated 
below : 
Personal Fouls. 

For each personal foul made by a player, 2 points will 
be deducted from the sportsmanship mark of his team, 
except where the foul is of a flagrant nature; then the 
penalty will be from 3 to 20 points, as decided by the 
referee. 



APPENDIX 353 

Player Expelled from Gnme. 

If a player is expelled from the game for unnecessary 
roughness, 25 points will be deducted from the mark of the 
team to which the player belongs. 

Spectators and Partisans at Game. 

The spectators and partisans of a team/ guilty of bad 
sportsmanship, though in no way chargeable to their team, 
will cause their team to lose 40 points. 

Conduct of Players and Folloioers, to and from Game. 

Unsportsmanlike conduct of a team and its followers, 
to or from a game, will cause that team to lose from 20 
to 60 points, as decided by the Administration Office, or 
Board of Control. 

Captain Addressing Official. 

A request on the part of a captain of a team for explana- 
tion of a rule, will not be charged against his team, if such 
request is to get information as to the meaning of a rule, 
and not to question the official's judgment. Such request, 
however, must be made in a courteous manner. 

Language and Conduct of Players. 

Lanuage and conduct of players refers to such things 
as swearing, losing temper, calling names, and other acts 
of rowdyism. 

BotJi Teams Receive Sportsmanship Mark. 

Both teams will receive a mark for sportsmanship and 
reliability. Should both teams exhibit good sportsmanship, 
and meet all rules as to reliability, both will receive credit 
for same. 

CHAMPIONSHIP, HOW AWARDED 

The championship will be awarded the team that has 
the greatest number of points after all scheduled games 
have been played, all games being scored on the point basis. 



354 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

APPENDIX J 

SOUTH PARK MERIT SYSTEM OF SCORING 
Base-ball League, 1920-1921. 

The Grammar Schools League consists of Chicago Pub- 
lic Grammar Schools and Parochial Schools in the South 
Park district. Each scheduled game will be scored on the 
Merit System, as follows: 

Sportsmanship 50 points 

Reliability 20 " 

Winning 30 " 

SPORTSMANSHIP 

Sportsmanship to include: (1) fouls and infractions of 
the rules, charged to a team; (2) prompt acceptance of the 
official's decisions; (3) language and conduct of players 
during the contest; (4) conduct of spectators and parti- 
sans of a team during the game; (5) conduct of team and 
followers, to and from game. 

RELIABILITY 

Reliability to include: (1) prompt appearing for play at 
scheduled hour and date. This does not mean that a team 
will be penalized for postponing a game on account of bad 
weather, in accordance with the rules of the league; (2) 
faithfully carrying out all rules as to eligibility, before the 
game is called; (3) captain's having batting order ready 
for scorer before the game is called. 

WINNING 

The team that wins will be credited with 30 points. 

SPORTSMANSHIP MARKINGS 

Conduct and Language of Players. 

Sportsmanship will be marked on the conduct and lan- 
guage of the players during the game, special attention 
being paid to blocking or attempting to bock a runner who 



APPENDIX 355 

is trying to make a base and the prompt acceptance of the 
official's decision at all times. For each block or attempt to 
block, a team shall be charged from 3 to 20 points, as 
decided by the umpire. 

Failure to accept the umpire's decision promptly shall 
cause a team to lose from 5 to 50 points, as decided by the 
umpire. 

Language and conduct of players refers to such things 
as swearing, losing temper, calling names, and other acts 
of rowdyism. 

Spectators and Followers of a Team. 

Spectators and followers of a team, guilty of bad 
sportsmanship, though in no way chargeable to their team, 
will cause their team to lose from 10 to 40 points from the 
sportsmanship mark of the team. 

Conduct of Players and Followers to and from Game. 

Unsportsmanlike conduct of a team and its followers, 
to or from a game, will cause that team to lose from 20 
to 50 points, as decided by the Board of Control. 

Captain Addressing Official. 

A request on the part of a captain of a team for explan- 
ation of a rule, will not be charged against his team, if 
such request is to get information as to the meaning of a 
rule, and not to question the official's judgment. Such 
request, however, must be made in a courteous manner. 

Both Teams Receive a Sportmamship Mark. 

Should both teams exhibit good sportsmanship, both 
will receive credit for same. 

CHAMPIONSHIP, HOW AWARDED 

The championship will be awarded the team that has 
the greatest number of points after all scheduled games 
have been jDlayed, all games being scored on the point basis. 



A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY^ 

I. INTRODUCTION 

A. Containing Bibliographies 

Angell, Emmett D., Play, Comprising Games lor the Kinder- 
garten, Playground, Schoolroom, and College. Little, 1910. 

Bancroft, Jessie D., Games lor the Playground, Home, School, 
and Oymnasium. Macmillan, 1909. 

Barnes, H. E., "Social and Reform Movements," Encyclopedia 
Americana, 1919. 

"Book Reviews" and "Bibliographies," in The Playground, 
Vols. I-XVI. 

"Community Service in Periodical Literature," War Camp 
Community Service, 1920. A bibliography of thirty-eight 
pages. 

Edwards, Richard Henry, Popular Amusements, Association 
Press, 1915. Annotated bibliographies at close of chapters. 

Hanmer, Lee F. and Knight, Howard R., Sources of Informa- 
tion on Play and Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation, 
1915. Thirty-six pages, classified according to subjects. 

Mero, Evert B., American Playgrounds, The Baker & Taylor 
Co., 1908. 

Zueblin, Charles, American Municipal Progress, Macmillan, 
1916. 

B. The Concept of a Movement^ 
Park, R. E. and Burgess, E. W., Introduction to the Science of 

Sociology, University 'of Chicago Press, 1921, pp. 54-55, 

and chap. xii. 
Thomas, Edward, Industry, Emotion and Unrest, Harcourt, 

Brace and Howe, 1920, pp. 252 ff. 
Zimand, Savel, Modern Social Movements, New York Bureau 

of Municipal Research, 1921. 



iThis bibliography is not intended to be a comprehensive 
one, neither does it include all the sources consulted in the 
preparation of the report above. It is a selected list of the 
more accessible of the important references, suitable for 
collateral reading. 

2The references here are chosen because of their sum- 
maries and bibliographies. They are suggestive only. The 
best way in which to formulate a concept of a movement is 
by studying particular movements; many are indicated in the 
references given here. 

356 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 357 



C. Definition of the Term "Play" 

Appleton, M. Estelle, A Comparative Study of The Play of 
Adult Savages and Civilized Children, University of Chi- 
cago Press, 1910. Exposition of social and biological 
aspects of play. 

Baldwin, J. Mark, Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental 
Development, Macmillan, 1902. Social and educational 
aspects of child play. 

Dewey, John, "Play," Encyclopedia of Education. Ed. by Paul 
Monroe, 1914. A psychological explanation of play. 

Gillin, John L., "The Sociology of Play," American Journal of 
Sociology, 1914, pp. 826-33. Emphasizes group aspect of 
play. 

Groos, Karl, The Play of Man, Appleton, 1901. Exposition of 
the practice theory of play. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Adolescence, Vol. II, pp. 206-36. Statement 
of the recapitulation theory of play. Interesting analogy 
but has become a moot question in science today. 

McDougall, William, Social Psychology, 1908, pp. 107-15, and 
345-47. Reviews theories of Schiller, Spencer, Bradley 
and Groos. Suggests interesting revision of Groos' theory. 

Patrick, G. T. W., The Psychology of Relaxation, Houghton 
Mifflin Co., 1916, pp. 47 ff. Explanation of nature of play 
from the "genetic" standpoint. Requires correction. 

Patton, Simon, N., Product and Climax, Huebsch, 1909. Dis- 
cussion of the relation of play to work. 

Spencer, Herbert, Principles of Psychology, Appleton, 1896, 
pp. 628 ff. Conceives play to be the expression of surplus 
energy. 

D. The Scope of the Play Movement 

Addams, Jane, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, 
Macmillan, 1909. 

Aronovici, Carol, "Organized Leisure as a Factor in Conserva- 
tion," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXIV, pp. 
373 ff. 

Collier, John, "Leisure Time, the Last Problem of Conserva- 
tion," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 93-106. 

Curtis, Henry S., The Play Movement and Its Significance, 
Macmillan, 1917. 

Davis, M. M., The Exploitation of Pleasure, Russell Sage Foun- 
dation, 1910. 

Edwards, R, H., "Public Recreation," Bulletin, Extension Di- 
vision, University of Wisconsin. 



358 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Gulick, Luther H., "Play and Democracy," Charities and the 

Commons, Aug. 3, 1907. Reprinted in A Philosophy of 

Play, 1920. 
Johnson, George E., "Education Through Recreation," Russell 

Sage Foundation, 1916. Portion of Cleveland, 0., survey. 
Lee, Joseph, "American Play Traditions and Our Relations to 

Them," The Playground, 1913, pp. 148-59. 
Lee, Joseph, "Restoring Their Play Inheritance to Our City 

Children," The Craftsman, Vol. XXV, pp. 545-55. 
Mero, E. B., American Playgrounds, Baker and Taylor Co., 

1909, pp. 68-119. 
Perry, C. A., Community Center Activities, Russell Sage Foun- 
dation, 1916. 
Richards, John R., "Chicago's Recreation Problem in Relation 

to a City-Wide Plan of Administration," The American 

City, December, 1915. 
Report of the Recreational Inquiry Committee of the State of 

California, September 28, 1914. 
Scott, Temple, Use of Leisure, Huebsch, 1913. 

II. THE ORIGIN OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 
For bibliography cf. Appendix A., pp. 332-34 above. 

III. THE STAGES OF THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

A. The Sand Garden Stage, 1885-95 

Annual Reports of Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene 

Association, 1885-1895. 
Annual Report Metropolitan Park Commissioners of Boston, 

1893, pp. 67-81. 
Lee, Joseph, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 

Macmillan, 1902. Cf. chapter on "Playgrounds for Small 

Children." 
McGough, Frances J., "The Sand Pile, Its Use and Care," 

The Playground, 1915, pp. 160-64. 

B. The Model Playground Stage, 1895-1900 
Annual Report of Massachusetts Civic League, 1901. 
Lee, Joseph, Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy, 

Macmillan, 1902, pp. 127, 164-67, 172, 175 ff. 
Tsanoff, Stoyan Vasll, "Children's Playgrounds," Municipal 

Affairs, 1898, pp. 578 fC. 
Zueblin, Charles, American Municipal Progress, Macmillan, 

1916, pp. 298-300. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 359 

C. The Small Park Stage, 1900-5 

De Groot, Edward B., "Recreation Facilities in Public Parks," 
The American City, Vol. X, pp. 9-15. 

Leland, A., and L., Playground Technique and Play Craft, 
Doubleday Page & Co., 1913, pp. 54-59. 

Riis, Jacob, A Ten Years' War, Houghton Mifflin, 1900. Story 
of first small parks in New York City. 

Robinson, Charles Mulford, "Landscape Gardening for Play- 
grounds," Proceedings of the Playground Association of 
America, 1908. 

Robinson, Charles Mulford, Improvement of Towns and Cities, 
Putnam, 1901. 

D. The Recreation Center Stage, 1905-12 

Annual Reports of Bath Department of Boston, since 1904. 
Annual Reports of the Board of Recreation, Philadelphia, since 

1913. 
Annual Reports of Pittsburgh Playground Association, since 

1912. 
Annual Reports of South Park Convmissioners, Chicago, since 

1905. 
Annual Reports of West Chicago Park Commissioners, since 

1908. 
Foreman, Henry G., "Chicago's New Park Service," Century 

Magazine, February, 1903, pp. 610-20. 
Perry, Clarence A., The Wider Use of the School Plant, Russell 

Sage Foundation, 1910. 
Raycroft, Joseph E., "Construction and Administration of 

Swimming Pools," The Playground, Vol. VII, pp. 417-33. 
"Rochester Social and Civic Centers," Report of the Civic 

League, Rochester, N. Y., 1909. 
Stoddart, Bessie D., "Recreative Centers of Los Angeles," The 

Annals, March, 1910, pp. 427 ff. 
Taylor, Graham Romeyn, "Recent Development in Chicago's 

Parks," The Annals, March, 1910. 
Ward, E. J., The Social Center, Appleton, 1913. 

E. The Civic Art and Welfare Stage, 1912-14 

Annual Reports of the Board of Public Welfare, Kansas City, 

Mo., since 1911. 
Davol, Ralph, Handbook of American Pageantry, Davol Pub. 

Co., 1914. 



360 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Dykema, Peter W., "The Spread of the Community Music 
Idea," The Annals, 1916, pp. 218-23. 

Dykema, Peter W., "Community Music and Drama," University 
of Wisconsin Extension Division Bulletin, Gen. Series 
No. 638, 1917. 

Farwell, A., "Community Music and Drama," The Craftsman, 
Vol. XXVI, pp. 418-22. 

Gordon, Edgar B., "Community Music and Drama," University 
of Wisconsin, Bulletin, 1916. 

Hanmer, L. F., and Bruner, A. H., Recreation Legislation, 
Russell Sage Foundation, Pamphlet No. 106, 1913. 

MacKaye, Percy W., The Civic Theatre in Its Relation to the 
Redemption of Leisure, M. Kennerley, 1912. 

Taintor, J. F., "Rural Pageant, Ripon, Wisconsin," The Play- 
ground, Vol. VII, pp. 240-56. 

F. The Neighl)orhood Organization Stage, 11)15-18 

Carver, T. N., "The Organization of a Rural Community," 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, for 1914, pp. 
89-138. 

Collier, John, "Community Organization and the Great De- 
cision," Seward Park Covimunity Center Magazine, New 
York, July, 1919. 

Gibney, E. C, Twentieth Annual Report of Superintendent of 
Schools, New York City, 1918, pp. 1-104. 

Hannifan, L. J., The Community Center, Silver Burdett Co., 
1920. 

Hanmer, Lee F., "Organizing the Neighborhood for Recrea- 
tion," National Conference of Social Work, 1915, pp. 70-77. 

Morgan, E. L., "Mobilizing the Rural Community," Massachu- 
setts Agriculture College Bulletin, No. 23, 1918. 

Nason, W. C. and Thompson, C. W., "Rural Community Build- 
ings in the U. S.," U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulle- 
tin No. 825. 

National Conference of Social Work, 1915-18. Cf. footnote 89, 
p. 147 above. 

Rainwater, C. E., Community Organization, Southern Cali- 
fornia Sociological Society, 1920. 

Woods, R. A., "The Neighborhood in Social Reconstruction," 
Proceedings and Papers of the American Sociological 
Society, 1913. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 

G. The Communitjj Service Stage, since 1918 

Colter, John R., "Tlie Town That Pound Itself," Community 
Service, Incorporated, Bulletin, No. 7, 1919. 

"Community Service," Community Service, Incorporated, Bulle- 
tin, No. 2. 

Condit, Abbie, "Recreation," The American Yearbook, 1920. 

Draper, George, Community Recreation, Internat. Com. 
Y. M. C. A., 1918. 

Edwards, W. F., "Community Service, a Positive Force in 
Reconstruction," Community Service, Incorporated, Bulle- 
tin, No. 1. 

"War Camp Community Service, Its First Year," The Play- 
ground, Vol. XII, pp. 273 ff. 



IV. THE TRANSITIONS IN THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

A. Provision for All Ages of People. 

"Adult Recreation," The Playground, Vol. XIII, pp. 414-24. 

Burchenal, Elizabeth, "Folk Dancing as Social Recreation for 
Adults," The Playground, Vol. XIV, pp. 404-16. 

Follett, Mary P., "Aims of Adult Recreation," The Playground, 
Vol. VII, pp. 261-68. 

Johnson, George E., Education by Plays and Games, Ginn and 
Co., 1906. 

Johnson, George E., "Games Which Young Men and Young 
Women Can Play Together," The Playground, Vol. X, pp. 
396-97. 

Perry, C. A., Community Center Activities, Russell Sage Foun- 
dation, 1916. 

Report of the Recreational Inquiry Committee of the State 
of California, Sept. 28, 1914. 

Report of Committee at Recreation Conference, 1916, "Educa- 
tion Through Plays and Games," The Playground, Vol. X, 
pp. 445-55. 

Ross, E. A., "Adult Recreation as a Social Problem," The 
Playground, Vol. XII, pp. 376-85. 

B. Provision Throughout the Year 

"A Catalogue of Play Equipment," The Playground, Vol. XIII, 
pp. 538-47. 

Annual Report Pittsburgh Playground Association, 1908. 

Annual Report, New York City School Board, 1899, pp. 28-32. 



362 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Condit, Abbie, "What Constitutes a Year Around Recreation 
System," The Playground, Vol. XI, pp. 198-201. 

"What One Community Has Done to Develop a Year Around 
Recreation System," TJie Playground, Vol. XI, pp. 196-98. 

C. Outdoor and Indoor Equipment 

Annual Reports Board of Recreation of Philadelphia, 1913-15. 
Annual Reports, South Park Commissioners, Chicago, 1904-5, 

1912, 1915. 
DeGroot, Edward B., "A Practical Talk on Playground Equip- 
ment," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 145-60. 
"Layout and Equipment of Playgrounds," Playground and 

Recreation Association of America, 1921, p. 60. 
Leland, A. and L., Playground Technique and Play Craft 

Doubleday Page & Co., 1913. 
Mero, E. B., A7nerican Playgrounds, The Baker & Taylor Co. 

1909. 
Nason, W. C. and Thompson, C. W., "Rural Community Build 

ings in the United States," U. 8. Department of Agricul 

ture, Bulletin, No. 825. 
"Report of the Committee on Recreation Buildings," Recrea 

tion Conference, 1916, The Playground, Vol. XI, pp. 33-41 

D. In Urban and Rural Communities 

Lee, Joseph, "Play as an Antidote to Civilization," The Play- 
ground, Vol. VI, pp. 110-26. 

MacKay, Constance D., "Imaginative Recreation in Rural Dis- 
tricts," The Playground, Vol. XIV, pp. 30-37, 83-96, 151-57, 
229-35, 307-18, 373-86, 417-28, 559-72. 

"Report of the Committee on Rural Recreation," Recreation 
Conference, 1916, The Playground, Vol. XI, pp. 152-60. 

Tate, W. K., "Rural Recreation," Nati07ial Conference of Social 
Work, 1915, pp. 65-70. 

"Rural and Small Community Recreation," Community Serv- 
ice, Incorporated, 1921, p. 152, 

E. Philanthropic and Community Administration 

Addams, Jane, "Recreation as a Public Function in Urban 
Communities," American Journal of Sociology, March, 
1912, pp. 615-19. 

Baker, Newton D., "Why Recreation Centers Should Be Sup- 
ported by Public Taxation," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 
183 ff. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 363 

Barrows, Edward M., "The Meaning of Self-Support," The 
Community Center Magazine, Feb. 3, 1917. 

Braucher, Howard S., "Why I Believe That Community and 
Neighborhood Centers, Schools and Parks Should Be Un- 
der Government Direction and Support," The Playground, 
Vol. X, pp. 83-96. 

"Community Recreation," Playground and Recreation Associa- 
tion of America, 1919. 

Gulick, Luther H., "Freedom Through Self-Support," The Com- 
munity Center Magazine, Feb. 3, 1917. 

Mallery, Otto T., "Which Municipal Body Can Best Conduct 
Public Recreation," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 86 ff. 

Richards, John R., "The Aim and Scope of the Recreation 
Movement," The Playground, Vol. X, pp. 377-81. 

F. Free and Directed Play 

Angell, Emmett D., Play, Comprising Games for the Kinder- 
garten, Playground, Schoolroom, and College, Little, 1910. 

Bancroft, Jessie H., Games for the Playground, Home, School, 
and Gymnasium, Macmillan, 1909. 

Bowen, W. P., The Teaching of Play, F. A. Bassette Co., 1913. 

Dickie, George E., "Aids in the Practical Conduct of Play- 
grounds," The Playground, Vol. IX, pp. 46-51, 153-59. 

Gibney, E. C, Twentieth Annual Report of Superintendent of 
Schools, New Yorh City, 1918, pp. 174-237. 

Gulick, L. H., "The Doctrine of Hands Off in Play," Proceed- 
ings of Playground Association of America, 1909. 

Hanmer, L. F., "Athletic Badge Tests for Girls," The Play- 
ground, 1916, pp. 165-71. 

Holeman, Genevieve Turner, "What We Did on a Summer 
Playground in Chicago," The Playgroxmd, Vol. XIV, pp. 
157-63, 245-50, 298-305. 

Johnson, George E., "Why Teach a Child to Play?" Proceed- 
ings of Playground Association, Vol. III. 

Report of Committee on Games, Recreation Conference, 1916, 
The Playground, Vol. X, pp. 445-55. 

G. Simple and Complex Fields of Activities 

Bates, E. W. and Orr, Pageants and Pageantry, Ginn & Co., 
1912. 

Braucher, Mrs. H. S., "Making Children's Dramatics Worth 
While," The Playground, Vol. IX, pp. 116-20. 

Bryant, Sara Cone, How to Tell Stories to Children," Hough- 
ton Mifflin, 1906. 



364 THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Chesley, A. M., Social Activities, Association Press, 1910. 
Corsan, George H., At Home in the Water, Association Press, 

1914. 
Ferris, Helen, Producing Amateur Entertainments, E. P. 

Button, 1921. 
Geister, Edna, Ice Breakers, Women's Press, 1918. 
Gulick, L. H., The Healthful Art of Dancing, Doubleday Page 

& Co., 1910. 
Hall, A. Neely, The Boy Craftsman, Shepardson, 1905. 
Hart, W. R., "Corn Clubs," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 285 ff. 
Langdon, William C, Celebrating the Fourth of July by Means 

of Pageantry, Russell Sage Foundation, 1902. 
Mackay, Constance D., Hoio to Produce Children's Plays, 

Holy, 1915. 
Mero, E. B., American Playgrounds, The Baker & Taylor Co., 

1909. 
Parsons, Henry G., Children's Gardens for Pleasure, Health, 

and Education, Sturgis, 1910. 

H. Facilities and Definition of Standards 

Collier, John, "Leisure Time, the Last Problem of Conserva- 
tion," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 93-110. 
Lee, Joseph, "What Are the Best Games for Boys in Crowded 

Cities?" The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 373-75. 
"Recreation for Industrial Communities," The Playground, 

Vol. XIV, pp. 278-82, 356-67, 429-46, 475-80, 554-59, 616-21. 
Rumbold, Charlotte, "Games for Girls in Large Cities," The 

Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 375-77. 
Ryan, Orson, "The Kind of School Athletics That Are Really 

Worth While," The Playground, Vol. IX, pp. 164-67. 
Storrow, Mrs. James J., "Folk Dancing as a Means of Family 

Recreation in the Home," The Playground, Vol. VI, pp. 

159 fC. 
"Street Play," The Playground, Vol. IX, pp. 16S-71. 

I. Individual and Group Activities 

Braucher, H. S., "What a Neighborhood Play Center Ought to 

Be," The Playground, Vol. IX, pp. 338-40. 
Efficiency Tests for Boys, Playground Association of America, 

Pamphlet, 1913. 
Glllin, John L., "Socialized Recreation," chapter in Poverty 

and Dependency, Century, 1921. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 365 

Jerome, Mrs. Amalie Hofer, "The Playground as a Social 

Center," The Annals, March, 1910. 
Lee, Joseph, "The Community, Home of Lost Talents," The 

Playground, Vol. XIII, pp. 171-76. 
McDowell, Mary E., "Recreation a Fundamental Element of 

Democracy," The Playground, Vol. VII, pp. 189 ff. 
Mero, E. B., "The Holiday as a Builder of Citizenship," The 

Playground, Vol. VIII, pp. 101 ff. 
Stern, Renee B., "Neighborhood Entertainments," Sturgis & 

Walton, 1910. 
"The Recreation Center as a Neighborhood Institution," The 

Playground, Vol. VII, pp. 188 ff. 
Von Borosinl, Victor, "Our Recreation Facilities and the 

Immigrant," The Annals, March, 1910, pp. 141-51. 



V. THE TREND OP THE PLAY MOVEMENT 

Condit, Abbie, "Comrades in Play," The Playground, Vol. XIII, 
pp. 463-75, 522-33, 586-600. Reprinted as a pamphlet. 

Devine, Edward T., "How Fundamental Is the Play Move- 
ment?" The Playground, Vol. VIII, pp. 422-24. 

Johnson, G. E., "The Renaissance of Play," The Playground, 
Vol. VI, pp. 85-98. 

Mackay, Constance D., "The Need for Imaginative Recreation 
in the Reconstruction Period," The Playground, Vol. XII, 
pp. 494-505. 

Richards, John R., "The Aim and Scope of the Recreation 
Movement," The Playground, Vol. X, pp. 377-81. 

"Three Years' Work of the Playground and Recreation Associa- 
tion of America, December 1, 1916, to November 30, 1919," 
The Playground, Vol. XIV, pp. 11-28. 

"Recreation Surveys," Sources of Information on Play and 
Recreation, Russell Sage Foundation, 1915, pp. 30-31. A 
bibliography. 

Stewart, Herbert L., "The Ethics of Luxury and Leisure," 
American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXIV, pp. 241 ff. 

"Yearbooks of the Playground and Recreation Association of 
Ameiica," Proceedings of Association, Vols. I-III, and TJie 
Playground, Vols. IV-XV. 



INDEX 



A.B.C. Conferences, 175 

Active play. 101, 253 

Addams, Jane. 326 

Administration of play: all- 
year provision, 286; annual 
calendar, 261; advisory coun- 
cils, 166; charging admis- 
sion, 101; community center 
conference, 140; community 
councils, 150, 160, 163, 170; 
community service, 184; co- 
operation, 255; decentraliza- 
tion, 98, 136, 164; instructors, 
99; in Grand Rapids, 234; in 
league of neighborhood 
school centers, 140; local 
centers, 134; matrons, 23, 
239; organization, 148; over- 
head organization, 139, 188; 
in Philadelphia, 110; public, 
235; recreation center staff, 
99; schedules, 255; South 
Parks, 101; street play, 285; 
support and control, 137, 143, 
235; supervision, 107. 135, 223 

Adolescents, provision for, 195 

Adult recreation, 196, 224, 279 

Advertising, 101, 197 

Advisory councils, 166 

Aesthetic activities, 266 

Age periods of play: by John- 
son, 244; by Lee, 243 

Amateur athletics, 246 

Annual calendar, 261 

Architecture of school build- 
ings, 116, 215 

Armour Square, 100 

Association, for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor, 64, 
228; neighborhood, 163 

Athletic supremacy, 293, 296 

Badge tests. 250 
Bailey, L. H., 223 
Baker, N. W., mayor of Cleve- 
land, 126 
Baldwin, J. M., 6 
Baltimore, sand gardens, 42, 51 
Baxter Square, 81 
Blackmar, F. W., 5 
Boone Park, 73 



Boston: early playgrounds, 21; 
indoor gymnasiums. 111; in- 
fluence on movement, 36; 
model playgrounds, 55, 65; 
purchase of Franklin Field, 
29; small parks, 82 

Branch libraries, Chicago. 96; 
Lios Angeles, 108 

Brentano community center, 
154 

Brookline, 16 

Brooklyn, 41, 51, 91 

Buxton, H. H., 37 

Cabbage patch, 218 

Calf clubs, 223 

Camps, municipal, 222 

Campbell County, fair, 222 

Canandaigua, 78, 88 

Carver. T. N., 169, 226 

Central Park, 80 

Charlesbank, 28, 29, 72 

Chicago: civic music. 120; de- 
pendence upon Boston, 43, 
110; drama league, 122; 
leadership, 109; municipal 
dances, 127; model play- 
ground, 55, 57; neighborhood 
organization, 147; recreation 
center, 93; sand gardens, 49, 
50; small parks, 87. 88; spe- 
cial park commission, 84 

Child play heritages, 220 

Cincinnati, 147 

City Park Association. 81 

City parliament of councils, 
165 

Civic art and welfare stage: 
characteristics of, 118; civic 
activities, 269; civic music, 
120; community singing, 121; 
community dramatics, 122; 
municipal dances, 125; mu- 
nicipal orchestras, 120; ob- 
jectives of, 132; origin of, 
318; pageantry, 123; play 
festivals, 123 

Classification of activities, 272 

Classification of patrons: by 
age, 243; by "divisions," 246; 
by height, 247; by sex, 246; 
by weight, 246 



367 



366 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



Classincatlon of play leaders, 
247 

Cleveland: municipal dances, 
126; training classes, 248 

Clubhouse, 106 

Coasting, 204 

College athletics, 15 

Colorado, rural school play- 
ground, 222 

Commercialized amusements, 
93, 135, 179 

Commons, New England town, 
13 

Community, 292; centers, 161; 
clearing house, 160; confer- 
ence of Chicago, 140, 156; 
councils, 150, 160, 170; drama, 
168; houses, 171, 216; music, 
121, 168; organization, 287, 
298; secretary, 173; service, 
179, 182, 185, 188, 196, 299; 
support and control. 226, 236 

Cooley, C. H.. 142, 291, 300 

Competitive games, 256 

Co-operation: between play 
centers, 255; in buying and 
marketing, 146 

Corn clubs, 223 

Correlated schedules, 262 

Dancing, 296 
Davis, M. M., 133 

Decentralized administration, 
98 

De Groot, E. B., If2 /ti2 
Democracy In recreation. 113 
Denver, 241 
Dewey, John, 7 
Dickinson Square, 58 
Direction of play, 98, 99 
Director of fieldhouse, 98 
District co-operative leagues, 

165 
Dodge, Miss Grace, 228 
Drama League, 122 
Dvorak Park, 103 

Eckhart Park, 103 

Edwards. R. H., 131 

E3fflciency tests: boys, 251; def- 
inition of, 250; girls. 251; 
group, 293 

Elliot, Charles, 30 

Ellwood. C. A., 323 

Evolution of play movement, 
S31 



Pairs and field days, 222 

Fancy diving, 252 

Festivals, 281 

Field of activities, 107 

Pieldhouses: comparison to 
school social centers, 214; 
director of, 98; history of, 
213; idea, 95; in Chicago, 205; 
Los Angeles, 106; Minneap- 
olis, 111; Philadelphia, 110; 
play sheds, 223 

Foreman, H. G., 94 

Gary schools, 116, 216 

Germantown, 219 

Gillin, J. L., 5 

Grand Rapids, 234, 238 

Groos, Karl, 7 

Group: concept of, 291; re- 
wards, 295; sanction of, 313; 
tests, 293 

Gulick, L. H.. 134, 143, 169 

Hall, G. Stanley, 6 
Hamilton Park, 75, 150 
Hannan Memorial Hall, 187 
Harrison. C. H., Mayor of Chi- 
cago, 84, 127 
Henry Street Settlement, 49 
Heritages of play, 220 
Hesperia movement, 145 
Hewitt, A. S., Mayor of New 

York, 61 
Holstein Park, 103 
Homogeneous group, 163 
Howell. Helen P., 50 
Hudson Bank playground, 228 

Indianapolis, 241 

Indoor equipment, 91, 92, 106, 
216, 223 

Indoor gymnasiums: in Boston, 
92; in Chicago, 91 

Inspection of commercialized 
amusements, 128 

Institution: characteristics of, 
309; definition of, 307; rela- 
tion to movements, 310; 
types. 311 

Instruction in play, 99 

Jahn, 14 

Jefferson, Thomas, 76 
Johnson, G. E-, 248 
Juvenile play, 223 



INDEX 



369 



Kansas City, Board of Public 

Welfare, 128, 297 
Kansas state law, 171 
Kent, William, 49 

Laissez fairs attitude toward 

play, 9, 227 
League of Neighborhood 

School Centers, 140, 164, 165 
Lee, Joseph, 60. 194, 203, 225, 

243 
Legislation: municipal, 130, 

280; New York state, 61, 74; 

regarding commercialized 

amusements, 119; South Park 

District, 93; West Chicago 

Park District, 102 
Leisure, 10 

Library, branch of, 99 
Los Angeles: activities of 

playgrounds, 107; clubhouses, 

106, 108; recreation centers, 

105, 107 
Louisville, 73, 88 



Mackaye, Percy W., 132, 326 

Manual play. 263 

Massachusotts Civic League, 
34, 65, 67 

Massachusetts Emergency and 
Hygiene Association, 22, 23, 
24, 25. 33. 39 

Matrons. 23, 239 

Memorial buildings, 217 

Metropolitan Park Commis- 
sion of Boston, 29, 30, 83 

Metropolitan Public Gardens 
Association of Philadelphia, 
81 

Michigan law, 187 

Milwaukee. 84, 111, 202 

Tfi??souri, 224 

Model playground, 56, 67, 211 

Mohawk-Brighton district, 167 

Movements: characteristics of, 
>1: concept of, 1: evolution 
of. 2: negative. 3; origin of, 
13; play movement, 8; posi- 
tive. 11: relation to institu- 
tion-? 310: structure and 
function. 11 

Mulberry Bend Park, 61 

MunlPinaJ. dances, 125. 297; 
orr>Vio<3tras, 120; parks, 71; 
traditions of expenditures, 
232 

Municipal Science Club, S4 



National Conference: of Com- 
munity Centers, 146, 224; of 
Social Work, 147 

National Social Unit Organi- 
zation, 167 

Neighborhood: associations, 
163; centers, 95; councils, 
140; organization, 98; in 
play, 144 

Neighborhood organization 

stage: A.B.C. conferences, 
175; community houses, 171; 
community secretary, 173; 
definition of, 141; district 
co-operative leagues, 165; 
councils, 140; in Chicago 
schools, 153; in New York 
City, 157; league of neigh- 
borhood centers, 164; neigh- 
borhood associations, 163; 
origin of, 162, 141; parlia- 
ment of councils, 165; prac- 
tical sources, 144; relation 
to recreation center stage, 
138; rural organization, 167, 
170; structure and function 
of, 148, 176; theoretical 
sources, 142 

New England commons, 13, 14 

New park service, 203 

New Trier Township High 
School, 116, 217 

New York: community support 
and control, 238; influence 
from Boston, 43; model play- 
grounds, 55, 60; sand gar- 
dens, 47, 50; school play- 
grounds, 19; small parks, 75. 
81; Society for Parks and 
Playgrounds, 193 

Newell, W. W., 8 

Northwestern University Set- 
tlement, 57 

Novice, definition of, 246 

Oklahoma, 223 

Old First Church, Boston, 15 

Origin of play movement, IS, 

44 
Outdoor gymnasium, 14, 96 
Outdoor recreation league, 60, 

63, 212, 228 
Overhead organization, 188; 

Chicago, 156; New York, 164, 

165; origin of, 139 

Pageants, 222, 267 
Park service, 253 
Passive play, 101, 253 
Peoples' Institute, 159 
Phi Beta Kappa, 251 



370 



THE PLAY MOVEMENT 



Philadelphia, 241; model play- 
ground, 50, 55; neighborhood 
organization, 147; recreation 
centers, 109; sand garden 
stage, 39, 43; small parks, 
78, 81 

Philanthropic support and 
control, 226 

Physical play, 265 

Pig clubs, 223 

Pittsburgh: recreation cen- 
ters, 109; sand gardens, 51; 
training school, 248 

Play: active, 253; activities 
classified, 272; by adults, 5; 
definition of, 8; festivals, 
123, 281; field, 97; passive, 
253; picnics, 222; sheds, 223; 
supervisors of counties, 223; 
variety of activities, 7 

Playground: camps, 286; 
groups, 291; schedules, 255, 
258, 261 

Playground and Recreation 
Association of America, 183, 
199, 222 

Police, 98, 99 

Political meetings, 100. 115, 
197 

Primary groups, 142 

Professionalism, 246 

Progressive exercises, 256 

Providence: free kindergarten 
association, 50; model play- 
grounds, 50, 55, 59; sand 
gardens, 42, 43 

Public baths, 84 

Public provision: definition of, 
230; South Park expendi- 
tures, 100 

TS i, " \> '■ ■ ■:"!!, 

Qulncy, mayor of Boston, 31, 
33 

Recreation buildings, 58; 
piers, 212 

Recreation centers: activities, 
100; adult provision, 197; 
Idea, 93; in New York, 111; 
in schools, 215; in South 
Parks, 93; significance of, 92 

Recreation center stage: aims 
65; characteristics of, 117 
cost. 100; definition of, 139 
In Los Angeles. 104, 106, 108 
In Rochester, 112; staff, 99 
supervision, 98; swimming, 
98 

Religious meetings. 100, 197, 

115 
Richards, J. R., 324 



Riis, Jacob, 60, 71, 194, 201 

Ripon pageant, 222 

Robinson, C M., 38 

Rochester: activities, 115; con- 
tribution to movement. 113; 
League of Civic Clubs, 113; 
origin of recreation centers, 
114; small parks, 78, 88; so- 
cial centers, 92, 112, 198 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 93 

Rural: recreation, 167; coun- 
cils, 170; houses, 171; need 
of, 219; organization, 167, 
168; overhead organization, 
174; secretary, 173; standing 
committees, 69 

Russell Sage Foundation, 237 

Sabin Community Center, 154 

St. Paul, 78, 88, 241 

Sand gardens: activities, 48; 
concept of function, 53; def- 
inition of, 46; description of, 
47, 240; first efforts, 11; his- 
tory, 22, 24, 27, 46, 47. 48; 
influence on movement, 35; 
stage of, 210; structure of, 
51 

Sauk City, 173 

Schedules, 257 

Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, 
125 

Self-government and self-sup- 
port: concept of, 137; in Chi- 
cago, 155; importance of, 
143, 188, 293. 296 

Seward Park, 62, 76 

Sherman Park, 100 

Skating, 204 

Small, A. W., 6, 300 

Small parks: association, 81; 
definition of, 70; idea, 72; 
motives of, 88, 90; staff, 98, 
99; slogan, 19; stage, 70 

Special park commission, 18, 
84, 95 

Spencer, Herbert, 6 

Social centers, 91; architec- 
ture of, 215; conference of, 
143; definition of, 138; in 
schools, 198, 215; Rochester, 
115 

Social play, 268 

South Parks: addition of 
small parks, 87; classifica- 
tion of patrons, 245; com- 
munity councils, 150; cost of 
recreation centers. 100; dis- 
trict, 93; Interpark competi- 
tion. 100: neighborhood cen- 



INDEX 



371 



ters, 95; organization, 94 
recreation centers, 96, 100 
religious prohibitions, 100, 
restrictions, 101; swimming 
pools, 98 

Sportsmanship, 284 

Stages of the play movement 
definition of, 45; civic art 
118; community service, 178 
model playground, 55 
neighborhood organization 
135; recreation center, 91, 
sand garden, 45; small 
park, 70 

Starr Garden, 110, 219 

Stoddart, Bessie D., 106 

Street play, 285 

Strong, Mayor of New York, 
54, 2011, 230 

Sunday baseball, 100 

Supervisor of play for coun- 
ties, 223 

Support and control, 99 

Swimming, events, 252; pools, 
98; South Parks, 99 

Team games, 249 

Tenement House Commission, 
61, 74 

Thomas, W. I., 274, 290 

Torpedo sand. 97 

Tower, Miss Ellen M., 33, 37 

Town Meeting, 140, 144, 145 

Training play leaders, 247, 248, 
249 

Transitions in the play move- 
ment: children to all ages, 
192; facilities to standards, 
273; free and directed play, 
239; individual and group 
interests, 288; outdoor and 
indoor activities, 209; phil- 
anthropic and community 



support, 226; simple and 
complex fields, 263; summer 
and annual provision, 200; 
urban and rural communi- 
ties, 218 

Trend of the play movement: 
definition of, 305; group 
sanction, 313; historical con- 
tinuity, 317; increasing or- 
ganization, 318; physical ac- 
companiments, 315; relative 
permanency, 320 

Triangle Park, 79 

Tsanoff, S. V., 59 

Ulster County play picnic, 222 
Union for Practical Progress. 
40 

University of Chicago Settle- 
ment, 57 

Violet Street Playground, 108 

Virginia, fairs, 222 

Voting in recreation center, 109 

W.C.C.S., extent of, 180; organ- 
ization of, 179 

Ward, E. J., 113, 138, 143 

Washington, D. C., training 
school, 249 

Washington Park meadow, 17 

West Chicago Park Commis- 
sioners, 102, 103 

West Virginia, 224 

Wider use of school plant, 91, 
233 

Wilcox, D. P., 142 

Wilson, Woodrow, 142 

Woods, R. A., 143, 226 

Zakrsewska, Dr. Marie E-, 22 
Zoning, for play, 286 
Zueblin, Charles, 325 



PRINTSD IN U.S.A. 



